Melding together a caliginous yet delicious blend of trip hop, electro punk, and hair-brained psychedelia, Brainwasher’s debut LP, 39 Lightyears From Heaven, suspends the listener’s senses in an airy web of bizarre euphoria.
The duo, the brainchild of Matt Duckworth Kirksey (vocals, drums, keyboards, sampler) and Tommy McKenzie (guitar, bass, keyboards, sampler) of The Flaming Lips, is a project that is a decade in the making. While touring with The Flaming Lips and a legion of other bands, Kirksey and McKenzie were working on 39 Lightyears From Heaven, slowly refining the oddity of songs with loops and distorted hums; sounds that almost lead the album at times.
Brainwasher knows how to craft trippy, yet catchy hooks, evident in the washed-out haze that is “Home,” or the industrial and drone pop coded “At Least It Beats An Actor.” That industrial and lumbering giant quality is also present on the disorienting “Control,” and the speaker-destroying outro of the closer, “Try.”
39 Lightyears From Heaven is also dripping full of instrumental and vocal easter eggs, Kirksey’s voice feeling like a friendly apparition that guides you through the journey. One song I find myself revisiting is the post-punky chameleon, “Burning Cars (feat. Spaceface).” The song is vibrant and eclectic as hell, using the combined vocal falsetto prowess of Kirksey, Jake Ingalls, and Eric Martin (Spaceface) to create a wall of voices as the fuzzy bass and guitars chew the scenery. The song also starts glitching out near the end, adding to the experimental chaos. This little edit always catches me off guard and makes me think I’m truly going insane.
“Candles,” then pops in with a minor-keyed piano that feels like the opening to a neo-noir detective series. Soon, the song takes a sombre tone with the hallucinogenic vocals and a kind of talk singing similar to old Gorillaz (Plastic Beach stuff). 39 Lightyears From Heaven is a strong debut from two guys who clearly get bored with convention. It’s an album that holds moments of easy groove with catchiness and holds a plethora of experimental havoc—any listener can find parts to love.
