#74 Br’er – “Of Shemales and Kissaboos” CD (Beat is Murder)

Another brittle-beautiful CD album from Vienna’s hottest Indiepop outlet Beat is Murder! Br’er is Philly-based Benjamin Schurr and Christian Mirande, plus a good amount of friends and followers that all play a certain role on the full-length debut “Of Shemales and Kissaboos“. Bittersweet and dysfunctional Avant Pop that beats the hell out of your expectants.
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For me, it usually takes a few runs to get into the records Dino Spiluttini releases at Beat is Murder. But when the music finally gets me, joy is multiplied by the time it took to decrypt the songs. This happened to me for Liger, Thee Moths and, most recently, Br’er. Alongside their multifarious chambermusic, odd boys Schurr and Mirande put up an artificial, gender-sensitive and semi-orchestral image that makes them a logical and enriching addition to the BiM rooster. Let’s go song by song, briefly.

“Of Shemales and Kissaboos” starts with the gentle “I’m a Kid Again”. All glockenspiel, stage piano, organ and vocals, this opening song both gives you a good idea about the album and leads you astray. “Maven” has a more opulent feel. I like these dark harmonium- and synth-textures that work pretty well with the boys’ Arcade Fire-style choir vocals. For “I’m Sorry Mum”, label mates Liger are probably the best comparison. Brisk chords on a detuned harp (?) mix with naive melodies and Schurrs dark singing voice to something neither really Pop nor Folk. These moments of atonality can be found in the violent Heavy Metal-blasts of “Rory Snake Handler”, too. Bursting with noise and organ-drones, this is Br’er at the edge of what one might term Rock. The vocal harmonies are very very Radiohead. And very very beautiful. “Spearhead’s Sister” is the minimal twin of “Rory Snake Handler” develops the outlined melody in a subtle and clever manner. The ballad, actually. “Lapin” at six has a similar minimal approach as “Spearhead’s Sister” but is based on a whole different musical idea. Imagine a mixture of European Renaissance bassedanse and Japanese Folklore plus a Slintistic finish. Woof!

The last three songs on “Of Shemales and Kissaboos” are less-Pop-more-noise. “Glory Hole” is piano noir and all about gloom, “Abcess Marked Return” a step towards synthesizer distortion and rural Postpunk, ca. 1980. “Emily the Bear”, finally, starts rough but moves into an intensive vocal performance over harmonium and crooked synth-sweeps that makes Conor Oberst sound like a school boy.

You can buy the CD at the BiM shop for 11€ + shipping.