Post-minimalist trio
Brandt Brauer Frick originally intended to return to their club music influences with the follow-up to 2019's
Echo. From the initial improvisatory sessions, the group built up tracks from programmed rhythms and piano sequences and gradually envisioned a concept about revisiting utopian ideas of the future. The trio helped curate an interactive art installation themed around faith in the future, and several interludes on the album
Multi Faith Prayer Room incorporate myriad collaged voices expressing visions of tomorrow. While angular, acoustic techno instrumentals like "Mad Rush" and "Dotted Line" are present, most of the album is heavy on vocal collaborations, much like 2013's
Miami.
Mykki Blanco starts "Act One" with a monologue about hooking up with fellow intellectuals at a climate protest, then gets lost in a heavy, hypnotic groove during the song's second half. Other tracks treat voices as additional instruments while keeping their messages intact.
Azekel's Auto-Tuned, multi-tracked vocals instruct "don't think too much, just feel it" during the sparkling, ecstatic soul-house cut "In Your Head Now."
Kom I's voice is more staccato and jigsaw-like during the choppy, jittery "Soba." "No One Like You" dices
yeule's glitched-out voice over a swirl of intricate melodies and thumping kicks. "This Feeling" has galloping breakbeats and floating yet introspective vocals by
Sophie Hunger, and the
Duane Harden-featuring "Closer to You" seems like
BBF's lush interpretation of classic New York house. After the nervous, blippy instrumental "Perpetuate," the album ends on a strangely uncertain note with the collage piece "F A I T H," which seems to arrive at the conclusion that there are no answers to the big questions in life, and we're all just navigating our own ways through all the chaos. ~ Paul Simpson
