Bravestation - Giants & Dreamers
If you've spent a year on this fine planet of ours, you've undoubtedly observed the changing of the seasons – or even the daily exchange of sun for moon and moon for sun. There's something inexplicably beautiful about the subtleties that characterize these transitions: the way the leaves begin to turn color at the introduction of cold or the way the sun sets not against a blue canvas but rather one decorated with a multitude of brilliant orange, pink, and blue hues. It’s all organic, a series of natural events that mark the passage of time. But that doesn’t change the fact that the sight, or the feeling, of such things is rather surreal.
Toronto’s Bravestation mix an earthly spirit with a futuristic eclecticism, painting pop melodies in fields grown through seeds of evocative synthesizers and soundscapes, chilled, dreamy, reverb-coated guitar riffs, distinguished bass lines, and intricately layered percussion. On their debut album, Giants & Dreamers, the quartet of brothers Devin and Derek Wilson (vocals/bass, guitars, respectively), Andrew Heppner (keyboards/electronics), and Jeremy Rossetti (drums/percussion) possess a sound that sews the sonic identities of Peter Gabriel, Yeasayer, Foals, and The Police together into something that people have taken to calling “tribal pop.” It’s a mix of dream pop’s alluring haze, post-punk’s rhythmic ambition and dynamism, synthpop’s blissful but chilly sheen, and afropop’s invigorating, irrepressible spirit.
Elements of all these genres can be found throughout Giants & Dreamers’ nine tracks, whether it’s Derek Wilson’s guitar work nodding to afropop’s rhythmic heart or Rossetti’s multifaceted drumming and arrangements recalling post-punk’s variety of style; he incorporates beats from African to electronica thanks to a keen ear and awareness for the relationship between every instruments’ cadence and voice. Opener “Tides of the Summit” begins, fittingly, with what sounds like a heartbeat, introducing the voice of a band in a fashion that seems to imply their belief that music can be discovered in every corner of the universe – it’s like their way of saying every one is a song, with his or her own unique beat. The serene yet anthemic “Signs of the Civilized” flourishes with Heppner’s spacey synth arrangements and Derek Wilson’s heavenly guitar riffs, but it’s Devin Wilson’s vocal melody and slick anchor of a bass that give the song some serious muscle within its near stratospheric-sized aura. The sweeping “Amaranthine” begins like it’s summoning the spirits of a lost tribe and then quickly changes gears into a uplifting rebirth of sorts, with Devin Wilson proclaiming, “The tropical air consoles and repairs the capital weights that hold down the gates/Forget all your fears & control all your years in magical space.”
While Giants & Dreamers can easily be labeled a “sonically lush” record, it’s also important to note the attention paid to sonic detail. With a pair of headphones on, you find subtle significance in guitar riffs playing more of a supporting role on songs like “Tides of the Summit” and “Amaranthine” or hidden atmospheric embellishments on songs like “Lines In the Sand” and “Marble Sky.” When it comes to ambition, Bravestation demonstrate a willingness to see their musical horizon as more of a window than a border. Their diverse but unified sound proves to be a testament to the band’s vision for something that capture the limitlessness alluded to in the album’s title. For Bravestation, you can’t say the sky is the limit, because they’re the kind of band that sees past the surface, beyond boundaries of even the past, the present, and the future; this is a band that has roots in the infinity of time. I’ve been with the band since their debut in 2010 and have watched them continue to mature in the best ways, slowly displaying an infectious universality that bridges the gap between accessible pop and the more experimental side of things. Giants & Dreamers is arguably one of the finest, most well-composed debuts of 2012.
Giants & Dreamers is out now. Pick it up on Bandcamp or iTunes.
Bravestation
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