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BRAAM
Gravity & The Right To Fly (Independent)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
When I reviewed the Braam brothers' band, Swingset Police, in 1996, I suggested they were young guys with a lot of raw talent who were going to do something special someday. I love it when I'm right. The three brothers and their friend and drummer Peter Drefs moved from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois, a city with much more going on for musicians, where they proceeded to become complete musicians and songwriters. Tom Braam's voice is versatile and just a little bit smokey, with just enough grit to make it stick with you. The biggest difference between 1996 Tom Braam and 2003 Tom Braam is his willingness to put his emotions on display, to invest everything into a vocal performance, and that will win you over every time.
The differences in the music can be described as the difference between an honestly fascinating and compelling pen and ink drawing and a sublime impressionistic canvas with elements at work you don't even realize are having an effect on you until you really break it down. Scott Braam's overdubbed guitar textures underneath the main chords and brother Mike's superbly rounded bass tones meet Drefs' excitement-generating drumming for what is usually just the backing track, before Scott goes to work planting rows of subtle sounds for texture. It turns anthemic ballads like "Let It Snow" into spine tingling instant favorites. Interestingly, the most powerful song on the album, "Manhattan," is actually the most sparse on the instrumentation front. The enormous sound comes from an open tuning on the guitar, which involves de-tuning the lowest string even lower. It's been done to death, and yet, when it's done correctly, it always feels brand new. Such is the case with "Manhattan."
"Manhattan" is a surreal, powerful and stunning song that should be all over college radio, from an album that is of a consistently high quality, but it's an independent release, and you know what that means. You'll have to root it out for yourself.
[Info at CDBABY.]
© 2003 - DJ Johnson