The notion of psychedelic music generally conjures images of bright, swirling colours, exuberant hallucinogenic-induced trips and freaky flares. Brace/Choir’s psychedelica is decidedly darker, and more minimalist in nature, and Turning On Your Double comprises eight meditations on social and individual battles with mental illness, through the medium of brooding trance rock.
Heavy material then, but presented pretty damn seamlessly, and not at the expense of the music itself. Accordingly, Biond sets a beautiful, quietly sad but oddly cathartic tone. Not a huge amount happens, but the hypnotic, stirring melody, framed in delicate swathes of electronics, are such that you don’t want them to stop.
Subsequent tracks build on this with impassioned edges, pretty lo-fi indie elements and atmospheric, sustained guitar effects. More sparks are ignited in the likes of Coil, an uptempo, progressive indie-rock success.
How much you enjoy much of this depends on your trance/drone threshold, but Turning On Your Double still emerges as an enigmatically moving, thought-provoking record.
Music for loud listening, deep thinking and floating into oblivion.
