Braii — City of Nothing (2018)

Would you follow the moody storytelling of Kyiv gothness, dare you to visit the City of Nothing, leaving your own, very alike one? Because all the lyrics, as Oksana Bryzgalova says, are truthful, based on the life all of us live.

Created about two years ago in Kyiv, the band Braii has already managed to sound at the Eurovision 2019 selection, and also behind the walls of its own recording studio, from where their debut EP "City of Nothing" leisurely appeared. "Istok" studio was founded by the band’s vocalist long before she’d managed to record the sound she was always striving for. But afore that space was heated up by Jamala, Brunettes Shoot Blondes, O.Torvald, Skai, Haitana and many others. By spreading her influence over Ukrainian scene formation, Oksana Bryzgalova takes the implementation of some kinda "social mission" upon herself.

Even though EP itself was recorded at home, the mastering process took place under curating of one of the most popular European sound producers — Tim Young, Metropolis Studio. 

Slow bass swinging by Inna Rassamakha treads the way for tranquil-telling vocals of Oksana Bryzgalova and her guitar, which creates exactly "that" mood. Collective also includes the drums of Alex Kryvosheev, which unobtrusively highlight the flowing guitar stripes by their sharpness. One more guitar owes its sound to Andrii Shulakov, who organically interweaves it into the whole sound massive. If you only lose one element — diving into the dark world of Braii wouldn’t be possible at all. The components here have found each other to finally give birth to the sound.

Cold indifference to the mistakes once admitted, in the clouds of smoke, in the light muffled or total darkness — it is the atmosphere of new and yet only band’s album. It’s tough to "live on the bottom of the sea", on any bottom, if someone experienced such. This is what one of the "brightest" songs from the album — "On the Bottom" — narrates, where the sound of sad sax also flickers in the radio darkness. And all the music seems to be from there, streaming from the very bottom to the light, it passes the way of loss, stripping, taking away the loudness and strength.

One of the most famous Ukrainian videomakers and Oksana's friend, Tanu Muiño, took responsibility for clip making. It was her and vocalist mutual desire. Also, she was responsible for the first band’s official video to the eponymous song "City of Nothing", in which one her camera lens caught the spirit of real emptiness filling the big city.  

"City of Nothing — is five different life stories. Faithful, intimate and unvarnished, which stand in chronological order. These are the stories of feelings, closure, losses, fears, and fearlessness, stupidity and own truth, the quintessence of passed through in the last 7 years. Such stories appear from the desire to sense everything on you, go there, where you’re frightened to go, but awfully interested in, and for me my music is the possibility to tell about it, to share the experienced," — explains the band’s front girl Oksana Bryzgalova.

Muffled to the post-punk frequencies, Braii finds the occupied niche their own and nobody else’s. Frankly speaking, on the CIS space, this corner still has much fresh air, unlike this same sphere in Europe or States, from where chosen post-punk revival sound stemmed.

It is pleasant distinctness for the listeners comes out from their readiness to play what they understand and want. Not like many contemporary bands, Braii clearly shapes their melody intentions, and sustain audio form with all the visual releases (videos, covers), accomplishing the wholeness of the figure as a result.

The vocalist once mentioned that it will be easy for listeners to sing their songs, and was not mistaken. The motives are rather simple and understandable for anyone, and in some years can even become recognizable by many people. But as for now, it is the very young formation, which we recommend you to follow intently!

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Braii in social networks:

https://soundcloud.com/braiiband
https://www.facebook.com/BraiiBand/

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1. City Of Nothing
2. Empty Shell
3. Complicated
4. On The Bottom
5. Stranger

23.05.2018
23 мая 2018