Review: Brandt Morain – Volume One

Brandt Morain is a pair of well-experienced, accomplished musicians who bravely endorse a purist approach to musical performance and production; something which music of today may often miss. Jared M. Brandt and Eddie B. Morain, Sr., along with the valuable contribution of Adam Morain, utilize their experience of thousands of hours in the studio to produce a tour de force of music, which is an homage to musical purists around the world.

Volume One is a flawlessly produced album which dedicates a unique portion of time to Brandt Morain’s influences and philosophy of music. This results in an album which focuses on a variety of genres including 70s West Coast Rock, Country, Pop and 50s Rock. However, each track is a fresh, modern representation of the style of music aimed for.

At the heart of Volume One, is Brandt Morain’s philosophy of music which promotes the ‘real’ element of musical production. As such, no vocal pitch correction devices, sound compression or any other studio gimmicks, which may remove the ‘dynamic’, ‘real’ element of music, were used in this album’s production. In essence, Volume One is a complete breath of fresh air in today’s age, something I wish other artists would aim to follow.

An interesting aspect of Brandt Morain’s philosophy of music is found in the track entitled ‘The C is Silent in Rap’. ‘The C is Silent in Rap’ is effectively a rap song about the perceived lack of talent and musicianship involved in the production of rap music. It is bound to upset as many people as it pleases, and could quite simply be a controversial You Tube smash hit, if someone would put together a video for the song, with scrolling lyrics.

On the flipside, one could argue that Volume One lacks cohesion in its approach to addressing different genres on the same album, which may mean that the listener will struggle to get into Volume One as a result of different angles of the Brandt Morain sound. Secondly, only 8 tracks on an album are just not enough. Give us more!

At its most basic level, music is about representation, evoked emotion and story-telling. Volume One successfully tells the story of two talented musicians, with purist hearts, approaching music in a way which they believe in and can have fun in. Frankly, it is contagious.

Best Tracks: ‘Soul of Gold’, ‘I Hate to See Her Go’ and ‘Rule of Man’.

77/100

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