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Braindance
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| By
Jonathan Mariante
Braindance are a man/woman musical duo consisting of Sebastian Elliot
on "double edged throat & unmentioned vocal processes, propaganda,
hearsay, & misinformation, animosity, belligerence, and loathing", and
Vora Vor on "guitars, backing vocals, ambience and
programming, persuasion, rumor, and manipulation, bitterness, hostility,
and astonishment." Plus they employ a number of backing musicians on the
other instruments. One could consider these two a Captain and Tenille from
the Dark Side! They play a style of music they call "progressive darkwave",
which fuses elements of metal, progressive, and Goth music. It is very dark
and somber, but also very high-tech and sophisticated, with complex
arrangements and skillful playing. Sebastian sings in a very low, deep, dark
voice. Most of the songs are slow-paced, but there are a couple of rockier
tunes, like "Relentless" and "Remission". They also use voice samples, which
sound like they are from old movies and TV shows, throughout the album. One
I recognize as a sample of Donald Pleasance's voice from
"Halloween!" There is even one whole track, "Reduction", which is made up
entirely of these voice samples. Did I hear Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" in
there? It's an amusing enough idea, but the gimmick gets old after a
while. As for the music, well, this duo are certainly not untalented, and
they get points for originality as well, as this is quite different from
most anything else I've ever heard, but I have to say it really didn't
do much for me. I didn't find it very exciting at all. The songs, although
well played and crafted, were long, slow, and plodding, it's a bit too
cryptic for my taste, and the album is very long, clocking in at over
sixty-four minutes. That's a long time for me to sit through this style of
music. Plus, it all kind of sounded the same, a bit monotonous. Just not my
kind of music at all.
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