Brazos Reveals New Video, album out next week via Dead Oceans

As he readies his brand new record ‘Saltwater’ for release via Dead Oceans on 27 May, Brazos man Martin Crane has revealed the brand new video album cut ‘Charm.’ A warm, expansive pop number ‘Charm’ is lead by stuttering guitars and buoyant rhythms while crisp percussion provides a quietly thrilling pace.
Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpbI6QcCOWA

‘Rare and enchanting understatement in a brash and gaudy world’ 8/10 Uncut
‘All taut suspense and skintight guitar lines, this is a work of subtlety, a work which reveals itself over successive listens’ Clash

Artist: Brazos
Title: Saltwater album
Label: Dead Oceans
Release Date: 27 May 2013
Formats: CD / LP / Digital
Cat no: DOC042
Distributor: PIAS
http://www.deadoceans.com
http://www.brazosbrazos.com

Martin Crane, who now records as Brazos, is on track to become a leading musical light, with a burning creative mind and a searching soul. Originally hailing from Austin, Crane currently resides Brooklyn, where he works part time as art handler, “hanging famous paintings in Park Ave apartments.”

Brazos gained recognition in 2009 with Crane’s self-released debut album, Phosphorescent Blues. His musical path was enlightened by the poetry of feminist and radical, Adrienne Rich. The album was hewn around ‘The Observer,’ the 1969 Rich poem Crane put to music. From the bouncy, free-formed vocal phrasing of that adaption, the album grew into a hypnotic tour-de-force that combined raw energy and dance rhythms with the subtle intricacies of jazz and folk. “She was one of my heroes,” Crane says, “and when she gave me permission to use her poem and said that she was excited to hear the record, it was a huge moment for me.”
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Brazos, in its original incarnation, went on to open for Grizzly Bear, Shearwater, Vampire Weekend, The National, Iron & Wine, as well as a national tour with old pals, White Denim.

Returning home to Austin after a whirlwind of touring and encountering like-minded musical spirits, there was an inevitable come down. “Most of my good friends had moved away from Austin,” Crane recalls. “I was working at a phone bank and hanging out in bars a lot. I’d lost touch with the meaningful things.” In search of “something new,” he packed everything he owned into a 1990 Honda Civic station wagon that he’d had since he was 15 and moved to New York. Rejuvenated, Crane wrote more than 30 songs across a two year span, and signed to Dead Oceans.

Recorded with new bandmates Spencer Zahn (bass) and Ian Chang (drums), the initial sessions for Brazos’ new album, Saltwater,began with three days of basic tracking where Crane’s acoustic guitar, Zahn’s warm bass lines, and Chang’s frenetic, melodic drumming were all recorded live. Then, over several months, Crane added and refined layers of pianos, synths, guitars and production embellishment. The multi-talented Sandro Perri mixed the final arrangements into a quixotic melange that is both understated and startlingly honest.

Saltwater was gestated in an atmosphere of listening to “transcendent groove music” – Pharaoh Sanders, Can, Harmonia, Fela Kuti, among a cornucopia of others.

“Pharaoh Sanders is looking for selflessness and love and peace, and there is no attempt to dress up what he’s after,” Crane muses. “He is yelling and singing, and it is pure joy. Can is lost in a subconscious world where language interacts with feelings and grooves, kind of like a Cy Twombly painting.”

Brazos’ Saltwater touches upon all these elements, with a light and lilting poise and the unique perspective of Crane, who is doing his utmost to struggle with and make sense of his place in the world.

“I think this record is about learning how to be alone. And I think that’s how it’s spiritual. You can’t actually love anything if you need it. I think this record is an odyssey out into deep solitude in order to really get a grasp of myself.”

But don’t start thinking Saltwater is a doleful album of introspection – it’s just the opposite. Like a stunning spring morning, Saltwater is buoyant, expansive pop, with an astonishingly sure hand of craftsmanship. This is no hazy psych mess, but a spacious, beautifully arranged body of work that is the mark of an important artist.

Brazos is slowing the quickening pulse of pop in wonderfully idiosyncratic style. Charm personified.