This week’s Listening Party features Montreal’s Braids and their upcoming show next Wednesday at Webster Hall. Listening Party is a weekly column promoting music discovery and encouraging concert-going. Each hand-picked Listening Party artist has an upcoming show at a local NYC venue. Grab your headphones and read on.
WHO: Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Austin Tufts and Taylor Smith
THEY SAY: “3 musicians”
WE SAY: Art rock with glitchy electro undertones
FROM: Montreal, QC
ONLINE: https://braidsmusic.com/
RECENT WORK: 2013’s Flourish // Perish; 2014 outtake “Deep Running”
UPCOMING SHOW: With Wye Oak at Webster Hall next Wednesday (5/7)
Braids exploded on the scene in 2011 with the fierce, sometimes thrashy, experimental sound of Native Speaker, whose songs were punch-drunk on lust, laced with anxiety, oozing the passion of youth. Since then the Quebec-locals shed band members and a lot of the frantic qualities of their first record, landing in a much calmer place with 2013’s Flourish // Perish. This album is more textural, more reflective, and beautifully somber. It seems the band members, and particularly lead singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston (who also plays in electro-pop project Blue Hawaii) have grown a lot. With glitchy beats, crackling synth melodies, atmospheric drone, and dreary far-off vocal loops, the album is a fresh, powerful and heartbreaking.
Live, the album will come to life with soulful instrumentation and an always-stunning performance from Standell-Preston. Catch the band on a terrific bill with Wye Oak on Wednesday May 7th at Webster Hall.