Fact #148857

Despite delivering this month’s most diverse and imaginative album, Vancouver sextet Brasstronaut is probably destined never to go platinum. The music is intensely cerebral, located somewhere between jazz-rock, psychedelia and classical composition, a combination I last heard on the 1968 debuts by Blood Sweat And Tears and Ars Nova. That said, it repays repeated plays, and close attention reveals subtle textural blends, virtuosic playing and super-smart arrangements. The twitchy, looping trumpet in opener Hawk is avant-garde but also catchy, the bass-propelled Desert Rock is everything thoughtful pop should be and the swooping melodic lines of Sooner Or Later perfectly enhance its lyric about disposable internet pap.
(Review by Johnny Black, first appeared in Hi Fi News)