Customer Reviews

Brightblack Morning Light

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...stoned..that's the word I'd use to describe this album....very, very blissfully stoned........Some of it sort of sounds like fleetwood mac's 'albatross' played at 15rpm...mixed in with a bit of ry cooder 'Paris Texas' soundtrack .......with a bit of something that could be approximated to the blues as played by a narcoleptic......at any minute you're expecting them to sort of stop playing for 30 seconds, then wake up and start playing again....There's something a bit film soundtracky about it all...but art house film soundtracky.....It's also got that sixties vibe ...but its still wholly original and unlike any thing you'll hear this year. Particularly when the brass starts up ...you just don't expect it to be there, but it works....

Southern rock-dub would be the most suiting genre, I think. I find it genuinely daring of them to ooze such a slow groove for so long. A little gimmicky...maybe that, too. You won't want to listen to this all the time, but definitely on the mark when golden light rakes through the room.

not a whole lot happens on this album. it has moments of groove and soul and cool, bits and pieces that sound good and feel good, but between them is a whole lot of filler. it's not like the bad is even noodling, they're simply playing the same groove for a long time (or what seems like a long time) without taking it anywhere. tension never builds, so there is never any release. neither is it a constant drone with microscopic variations and changes. it's not interesting white noise. this is music for stoner elevators.

i can't say i dislike this album, but it doesn't do anything for me either. i'd prefer to give it something less than three but more than two. the playing is competent, but nothing exciting. the best part is probably the glasses that come with the package. i like seeing everything with rainbows. at least then something changes.

This is basically an advancement of the esthetic behind that whole LOW MUSIC movement. In fact, there has always been bands, that worked with this musical ideology. I'm talking about very low, tribal drumming, lots of drones, slide guitar, deep bass playing, and whispery, freaked out lyrics that function not unlike druidic chants at a festival in honor of Morpheus. At times, with the two female soul singers behind him, you might think you were listening to the early NIGHT TRIPPER albums that Dr. John recorded when he was still fun. Then, you hear the slide guitar, and you are reminded of STICKY FINGERS era stones, with Mick Taylor's slide work, played over the low, thunderous drum and bass attack of Bill and Charlie. Or even the slide guitar of Duane Allman, when the Allman brothers still were playing some deep southern soul, and jazz, before their double tragedy. Next thing you know, you are hearing influences from to LOW to MORPHINE (the band after they got the keyboard player, and began to study those subsonic notes that blew my woofers!) Just to keep it earthy, there's even a layer of shamanistic tribal, Indian drumming on a lot of the cuts. obviously, a lot of different influences are converging here, and making that kind of fusion work, is a tricky business. The danger is that the band could end up either copying their formula for this unique sound, or reducing the fusion of influences, to make for a clearer, more mass appealing product. Hopefully, they will stay sincere, and bands this underground usually DO stay loyal to their philosopies. In any case, this band sounds as if they are at the top of their game artistically, and they know their game quite while. So, if you are after a nice, SLOW AND LOW sound, with a jazzy liquid swirl of molasses sweet weed haze and codiene cough syrup abysses, then this is for you. It's not that you need to be on that kind of alchemical fusion of drugs to get this album. The album's artistic drive appears to imitate that earthquake low chant/drone sound, bound with a "FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF MORPHEUS" vibe. Just relax and go with it. Approximately 78% of those who listen to this album just 2 or 3 times, become hopelessly addicted to the album. I know I hear it almost every day myself, but I can stop anytime. Before you know it, you'll be turning on your friends to the band. You might even be able to recall correctly the bands groovatious psychedelic name without reading the CD cover. If you need a supply of this album, here's the place to score it. Keep it cool, dude.

That's about the best description I can think of for this album: a slow motion Morcheeba without the supercorny lyrics.

Elsewhere, I read a review of this album that described it thusly: 'If you're the sort of person who can sit down and listen to three 20-minute versions of the Dead's 'Dark Star,' this is for you.' Being a huge Dead fan, I might take three 'Dark Stars' instead, but I can see where they're coming from.

I get the whole sound-collage, songs-blending-together-pastiche thing, but how about a song in a different key now and again? In the same way that Dylan does recastings of his songs live, Brightblack seems to be co-opting James Browns' technique of working a nice studio jam and doing it to death.

And death might also be an apt description. These songs all move in sloooow time - there is one mild exception, but I wouldn't exactly call it upbeat - and I could see any one of them serving as the perfect score for a suicide scene or slo-mo sex scene in a movie (also, coincidentally, some of them work rather well as striptease songs, with their bluesy licks and heartbeat drums).

I'm a bit conflicted about the record as a whole. I like the first song so much, but then so much of the album plays like an extension OF that song...

So, like the Dead's 43-minute 'Dark Star' from a '72 Philly Spectrum show (also, this album is just about 45 mins. long), it's a beautiful, roots-blues excursion that plays for just about the right length of time. Good stuff.

This was one of those albums where the first song came on ("Everybody Daylight") and it immediately caught my attention because I liked it so much. I thought to myself how lucky I was to have found them, yet still so jaded by modern music that my expectations for the rest of the album were extrememly low. By the end of my first listen I could not believe that every single track was in it's own way a little gem.

For me it's not about every song being unique and standing out. They drift into and out of each other with soft chimes and bells. It's all a beautifully dreamy vibe more than anything. It's downtempo to the extreme and most minialist, yet richly layered. The vocals, so far I have not been able to make out more than a word or two. But that feels alright because I don't know that the words are all that important compared to the overall feeling one has while taking it all in.

The entire album is relaxing and peaceful. For me BBML is all about the vibrations. There's a soulful, bluesy element tying everything together, but I also hear My Bloody Valentine and even a little Hope Sandoval/Mazzy Star thrown in.

Mesmerizing. Enchanting. I'm in love.

I love listening to this album all the way through. I simply cannot be stressed out while listening; I play this after other band's concerts, while driving to work, sitting around the house, just whenever. This is so chillout, that maybe rock fans won't appreciate the sound too much, but as I personally am a fan of ambient and downtempo electronic music, this surprisingly is right up my alley.

Brightback Morning Light - (self-titled, 2006)

. . . the entire album comes close to sounding like one continuous mellow song. A somewhat modern and spacey update of old-school funk-soul-blues, the album is very laid-back, sometimes to the point of lethargy and the organ riffs are endlessly repetitive. R.A. Hughes' voice is appropriately serene and breath-y and there's a fair amount of variety in the choice of instruments despite the overly dominant Rhodes organ. The monotonous style isn't necessarily a bad thing if you just need something in the background to groove on or even fall asleep to. It's a decent chill-out record.

not very jazzy - but does the same sort of tripped down focus to folk and blues that bohren does with jazz. i love it. don't be turned off by the other reviews if you like the bohren

this album has cool all over it. it's like the coolest film score to the coolest film never made. minimalist, mysterious, and sometimes a bit eerie, this recording goes right onto my classic list of late night listening pleasures. i can see myself listening to this 10 years from now and beyond. slow and beautiful sounds creeping across decades of nights. the british publication "mojo" picked this as the 26th best album of 2006. i put it somewhere in my top 5.