Bracken
High Passes
For fans of: Flying Lotus, Hood, Portishead, Boards of Canada, Bibio, Odd Nosdam, Burial. High Passes is the brand new album from Hood co-founder Chris Adams under his Bracken moniker. After previously delivering albums for labels as high profile as Domino, Anticon and Slumberland, Chris has now hooked up with Home Assembly Music for his most far-reaching and ambitious work yet. High Passes is a record made for both huddled northern terraced streets and imaginary basement clubs. From the opening Portishead-ish kraut thump of Slow Release to the sunny side up, LA inflected, hip-hop lollop of Invest In Aquacar , to the faded 70's analogue synth swirl of Branch Hid Sky and the sumptuous electronic pop of Ghostly , High Passes is a calling card for Adams' versatility and his remarkable production and songwriting skills. We also get haunting, Ballard-esque, dystopian love songs ( Still Here ) and even smudged, brooding, outsider house ( Ravenser Odd II ) revealing High Passes to be almost a distillation of everything great about electronic music in the last twenty years. The prevailing influence of his highly acclaimed post rock troupe Hood is still much in evidence throughout, both in Adams' wistful, treated vocals and in the effortless leap-frogging of genres. Masked Headlands in particular recalls Hood's Cold House high water mark with skittering beats and late night dub inflections, as does the superb How Is This A Cure? where Burial meets Boards of Canada meets King Tubby on a Leeds inner city night bus. In an age of click and switch phone browsing, High Passes is an album to engulf you and take over your life.
Tracklist
1Slow Release
2Ghostly
3November Day
4Half Recalled
5Branch Hid Sky
6Invest In Aquacar
7Guiding Hand
8Masked Headlands
9You're Unstoppable
10How Is This A Cure?
11Ravenser Odd II
12Still Here
13Ten Years