DECAYCAST Reviews: bran(…)pos – INTERROSPECTIVE Pt 1 & 2 (Not on label, 2024)

If you hear the first track, “Shitty Karma of Swatting Flies” and progressively feel like you are moving towards the edge of a madness you aren’t very familiar with, you have officially stumbled upon the point. INTERROSPECTIVE is a media project created by San Francisco’s own bran(…)pos that isn’t afraid to overwhelm, if it conveys a certain picture or feeling. The opening track goes from maddeningly chaotic to occasionally, for a lack of a better-fitting term, dreamy, but only if by dreamy, you are thinking of something more…surreal. With high-pitched buzzing noises also contain sounds of clanking metal and clanking plastic. And that is just around the 8-minute mark.

The description still feels tamer compared to the 27-minute experience, but all there is to say is that the descent into the hell that the track creates doesn’t end there. It only gets more fascinating as you go.

“Wartime Care and Maintenance for D.Muscipula” (D standing for “Dionaea”, as in Venus Fly Trap”) is a much slower crawl to the madness, as over grinding cellos, the song sounds like what were to happen is the blues were exoskeletal, and as a result of such a thing, in the four minutes mark, warped and melted cello and vocals liquid in each and every direction possible for the remaining duration. Occasional slimey vocals dance with blipping synths during the 11:30 mark.

In his description, INTERROSPECTIVE is a “series of sonic performance pieces meant as meditations on festering emotional states we humans are blessed and cursed with”. Whether it be a feeling meant to be coax out of its listener or if—as this was improvisational— this was more meant to be a largely therapeutic exercise, either way, the moment you press play, it will be the hardest thing to simply look away or turn it off. Therein lies the power. Just like your own inner thoughts and emotions, no matter how horrid, you’ll always be tempted to let your curiosity get the better of you.

Let it. – mynameiblueskye

PS, while you’re here don’t forget to read our interview with Bran (…) Pos here

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