Amandra - Brera Som Som
It can be a struggle to wade through the swamp of electronic music releases. With the fruitful democratisation of production equipment and DJs becoming the new rock stars, everyone wants a piece of the pie. It's not controversial to say there's a saturation in the electronic scene. Unfortunately, a lot of it can be devoid of meaning and, at times, even come across as cash grabs. For this reason, I was shocked when I started tucking into the latest album from Amandra, Brera Som Som (2024), which cleared my pallet like a titillating lemon sorbet, cutting through the noise of mediocrity all while retaining enough meat to chow on over multiple listens.
Brera Som Som is an invigorating and refreshing take against the backdrop of the current electronic landscape. Each track explores a different rhythmic oddity, which results in a highly hypnotic and immersive experience. Amandra's alien techno forms worlds within his tracks, with each piece playing by its rules. Take the treacherous and rocky beats of 'Cyborg Pelikana', which does away with silly things like predictable rhythm. It's already a disorientating tune until you lock into the irregular cadence. Contrasting melodies barely interact aside from being contained in the same track. It's these little pockets of inspiration that, although wildly experimental, produce little moments of magic as your brain struggles to comprehend what you're hearing. You are inevitably drawn further into the record. Similar bespoke world-building techniques appear on 'Fanfaron'. Revving cyclical thunderstorms of percussion and resonating croaks bleed into a drawn-out symphony subtly changing over time.
Amandra's style is most at home, with plucky percussive numbers and raga-esque repetition accented by more abstract musical forms. His tunes can sometimes come across backwards, with snares, claps, and kicks all invading each other's space, creating these mechanical ratcheting loops. 'Brera Som Som' demonstrates almost a mysterious way Amandra's song can sound so off-kilter yet still hold such a strong identity. The nonsensical plucks would sound ridiculous if not for the track committing so hard to rejecting standardised ideas of musicality. It's a clinic in the weird and wonderful and pushes the boundaries so far that I struggle to think of anything in classic Western melodics that would fit better.
The percussive exploration continues into 'Prorokini', where the loops are silky as they flow in and out like the tide, which allows Amandra to experiment with progression on this joint. As the kaleidoscopic melody slowly moves in, it changes through a litany of different xylophones, horns and kazoos. It is an incredibly refreshing take on electronic music. Amandra continually spits on percussion rules and finds fun between the beats for expression in timbre and tone.
Brera Som Som includes four remixes, topping off a stellar exploration into rhythm. These remixes take the tracks in different directions, with the most conventional coming from Martinou, whose remix of 'Brera Som Som' is a perfect foil to the original. Every element is reworked without compromising the original vision, giving context to that experimental piece with a much more conventional take. Shielding takes 'Cyborg Pelikana' in a more hypnotic, floaty direction, creating a lot of tone with delicate piano.
Brainwaltzera and Whylie take their remixes in a darker direction, incorporating jungle breaks and gripping atmospheres. Brainwaltzera takes 'Brera Som Som' and creates an eerily rattling track. The diegetic howls and atmospheres between the beats are punctuated with raw junglist breaks, resulting in some truly intense IDM moments. In the same way, Whylie brings elements of dark, edgy rave into his remix of 'Fanfaron'. There's a much greater emphasis on contrast, especially when the celestial pads arise over the murky rumblings towards the end; it's truly something special.
Brera Som Som really is something a bit weird, a bit out there, and it's something that many people will find incredibly inspiring. The record is a bit wacky and experiments a lot, but that's why it resonates so much. While most fear stepping outside the box, Amandra curates the whole experience as far from the box as possible. So, if you're feeling stagnant in your musical selection, give Amandra's Brera Som Som a shot.
Tracklist:
Cyborg Pelikana
Fanfaron
Brera Som Som
Prorokini
Cyborg Pelikana – Shielding Remix
Brera Som Som – Brainwaltzera Remix
Fanfaron – Whylie Remix
Brera Som Som – Martinou Remix
Label: music_is (2024)
Amandra - Brera Som Som
