AccordionBruce
1001 Other AlbumsSelf-Titled Saturday | Brama (2024, France)
For our next STS 2.0 spotlight, we’re going to take a look at number 0y[1] on The List, submitted by riff. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Point of origin(s): This group began in 2019 as a psychedelic power trio with Simon Guy (lead vocals, guitar), Paolo Gauthier (drums, vocals), and Baptiste Lherbeil (hurdy-gurdy, vocals). Yes, hurdy-gurdy. The album we look at here is Brama’s debut LP, following their 2022 EP La Glane. Their lyrics are in the Occitan language – continuing their partnership seen on the EP with Dominique Decomps, a professor/translator of Occitan, Decomps wrote or co-wrote the lyrics for nearly all the songs, with the final track using a traditional text.
- Tasting notes: Translated from their Bandcamp: “Brama’s music draws as much from the violin music of the Massif Central, as from the Pakistani Qawali, the guitar from Mali, the German krautrock and the ritualistic rock riff full of fuzz. Always sunny and hypnotic, Brama invites you into a ceremony at the crossroads of a tarantella and a psychedelic rock’n’roll mass. The hurdy-gurdy as a liturgical organ, the guitar/bass as an exorcised subject and the shamanic voice, mistress of worship.” The Quietus review of this album compared them to Mdou Moctar “in the way they revitalise hoary rock tropes through a combination of local flair, blistering musicianship and infectious enthusiasm”,[2] and I’d have to agree.
- Standout track: “S’enraija”, but, also, all of them rock.
- Where are they now?: Brama is now a quartet, with Amandine Pauvert at the hurdy-gurdy helm and Antony Miranda on bass.
- Websites: Bandcamp, Discogs (has links to their socials)
Happy listening!
kleigher
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