After several years releasing on Hotflush, Rush Hour and under the Sepalcure alias alongside Machinedrum, Braille (Praveen Sharma) returned earlier this year with his full-length release 'Mute Swan'. Digging deeper into the desire for a narratively rich release, the album played hosted to vocalists Jesse Boykins III and several appearances from Angela Bess, as well as additional production from Throwing Snow and Seafloor.
The video for ‘The Cats Gone Nuts’ is a trippy visual assault. Directed by nryn, its like plunging your head into the past and seeing nothing but pressure cookers and ration books. The track itself is an uplifting, steady rolling mass that draws on influences of classic soul and R&B, perfectly layered with a little help from Seafloor. Vocals are something that always glow in Braille’s productions (think Year 3000) so we asked him how he approaches them. “Previous sampled vocals I used for older Braille material were basically layered instruments to compliment the momentum of the track,” Braille says. “The vocals on 'Mute Swan' were meant to convey emotion and fill a particular pocket of the songs so they were treated differently. They relied more on processing and space than layering and chopping.”
Its quite hard to describe Braille's sound on 'Mute Swan' but songs for your sweetheart that cut through the crap is probably a good start. The Cats Gone Nuts has echoes of the club, a driving and uplifting sound that encroaches on the last track of the night feel. When asked Braille to describe his sound, Praveen gives us two pet names: 'kitty beatz' and 'paranoia step'. Ask for those in your local record store.
And the burning question. Why has the cat gone nuts? “She don’t drink enough”.
Braille's 'Mute Swan' LP is available now (buy).
