Joy is Brandt Brauer Frick‘s fourth album and the first one to be truly vocalist-focused and song- centric. With the help of Canadian poet-singer Beaver Sheppard who played a prominent role the composition, Brandt Brauer Frick explores what the band-members describe as “post-religious” themes, such as struggling to find joy in times of uncertainty and instability. This makes it without any doubt Brandt Brauer Frick’s “Nietzsche album”.
Following on from their latest album Miami (2013) Brandt Brauer Frick keeps moving away from the dark mood of their early releases and the image of a “classical new music ensemble” to resemble more closely an “experimental rock band”. With much more grit and growl than before, they draw upon genres and styles that are not conventionally…
…associated with joy: krautrock, punk, drum’n’bass, indie rock, new wave, and pretty much every other “-wave” from the ’80s. With each track offering a contrasting combination of styles and genres, BBF succeed in devoting a whole album to a single feeling without making it either monotone or cliché. Instead, they build on euphoria to expand and enrich electronic music’s emotional range with new textures.