Take a journey to post rock nirvana with the sophomore album by Bruecken
Innere Unruhen is the sophomore album from OldenBerg, Germany based quartet Bruecken Now I must profess to not knowing anything about this band before listening to this album save for the fact that they are signed to the brilliant label Moment of Collapse records (which is already a good indicator of the quality of their music.
Now, my German is non existent but according to the band, Innere Unruhen is an ambiguous phrase meaning ‘feelings of unease or unrest’ and also ‘civil unrest’ which the band try and capture in their music which plants its flag very firmly in the post rock garden. Trying to convey any form of concept is difficult, trying to do it with no lyrics is really very difficult. But I tell you what, they’ve given it a bloody good attempt and pretty much smashed it out of the park too.
Opener Fluthoch is a tremendous way to start the album, it’s only a short song but with its lovely clean guitar tones and increasingly pounding drum work it really lays the groundwork for what’s to come.
Next song Abgrundief continues the path laid out in the previous song and feels delightfully meandering, but in a good way, like walking through a country garden stopping to admire the work that the gardener has put into the various areas of the path.
The interesting journey continues throughout the rest of the album. The notion of unrest really shines through the whole album, the chunky riffs on Zerrbild are a great addition and feel like the antics of an insomniac tossing and turning trying to get to sleep, the angst is almost palpable. But the band have too tight a reign on the music to let things stagnate and before the unease really takes hold, they lift you up with a joyous passage and that beautiful clean guitar tone acts like a sorbet, a wonderful palette cleanser between meatier courses.
Sometimes, you don’t want the wheel reinvented, you want to listen to things you know, a comfort blanket of familiarity, this album is just that tonic. It makes you want to press play and let those gorgeous post rock tunes take hold so you can get carried away on a carpet of aural tranquillity. Its really rather good.
