Coherence is sometimes lost inside a soundscape – as an immersive environment becomes greater than its component parts, subtlety can too easily disappear. Fortunately this was not the case inside Electrowerkz on the 24th November. The four piece known simply as BRNS (Pronounced Brains) delivered a strong and calculated setlist with mechanical precision, each instrument combining harmoniously with the next. The band allow themselves a signature sound, one that is at once punchy, catchy, and clean – however the level of difference from one mood to the next, a common theme throughout, keeps the crowd guessing. Their track ‘Any House’, for example, remains a bright, energetic and math-like piece throughout, filled with action and pace. Compare this to ‘Void’, where distorted guitars and choral vocal hooks take focus, and you have a very different environment inside, and it is managing those different moments well that makes this a coherent setlist throughout.
The lead vocalist and drummer, Timothée Philippe, is consistently praised as a mesmerizing centerpiece and proverbial “glue” that connects not only the music, but the other band members as well, and It is through his performance that we see the true personality of BRNS, which is in essence something playful and young. Melodicas, xylophones, childish bells and even nails are all used to create that playful feel, all without finding itself gimmicky. Beside Philippe, Diego Leyder fills the role of guitarist and vocalist, cutting through with high-end arpeggios, that lovely clean sound reminiscent of the Fouls, Animal Collective, or Battles. César Laloux and Antoine Meersseman, bassist and keyboardist respectively, comprise the other half of BRNS and both perform on a multitude of different instruments on any given track, including those sometimes haunting sounds coming from a toy xylophone. Laloux holds his own amidst the stream of noise emanating from stage, and through it all it was his catchy bass lines that were in my head long after. All in all BRNS is a band that I would describe as genuinely “interesting”, interesting in that I was never sure of what was coming next, and I’m still not sure how they do it.
Words by Sebastian Mead