ALL THINGS MUSIC
PAGE 6 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
Bandcampin’: Good stuff for your ears
BY BEN SALMON
For The Bulletin
B
andcamp is an online music
platform used largely by in-
dependent artists and re-
cord labels to stream songs and
sell merchandise. It’s also a vi-
brant virtual community teem-
ing with interesting sounds just
waiting to be discovered. Each
week, I’ll highlight three releases
available on the site that are well
worth your time and attention. If you
find something you dig, please consider
supporting the artist with a purchase.
10 albums of 2011 that published in this
very section a decade ago. Here’s what
I wrote back then: “Sure, the band
sounds like a wax-museum
stand-in for Dinosaur Jr.’s
squealing solos, Kim Deal’s
bouncy bass lines, Teenage
Fanclub’s gorgeous choruses
and Steve Malkmus’ detach-
ment. But if you’re going to
build a Frankenstein, why not
use the best parts?” Farewell,
Yuck. You made one great al-
bum, which is one more than
most bands.
YUCK
BREEZE BREWIN
“Yuck”
“Hindsight”
Earlier this week, the English indie rock
band Yuck announced its breakup on the
10th anniversary of the release of its self-ti-
tled debut album, which is the album you’re
looking at and reading about here. They
did that, perhaps, because while Yuck did
release two more albums, they never again
scaled the heights they achieved on “Yuck,”
which — fun fact — made my list of the top
I don’t claim to be an
expert on hip-hop. I try to
pay attention and hear all
the big releases and keep an
eye on the up-and-comers, but I
can’t stay totally on top of this partic-
ular genre like I can with others. So I don’t
know if it’s perfectly understandable that I’d
never heard the name Breeze Brewin until
this past week, or if my ignorance is evi-
dence of a sizable blind spot. Either way, this
album from the leader of the New York City
group The Juggaknots feels like a revelation.
Breeze is in fine form, spitting thoughtful
rhymes and clever wordplay like a decaf-
feinated Aesop Rock, and the beats
that form the backbone of these
songs are consistently creative and
compelling. Put it all together and
“Hindsight” practically leaps from
the speakers. Breeze apparently
played the main character (Tariq)
on Prince Paul’s conceptual
1999 classic “A Prince Among
Thieves,” and his 2021 album
feels like a throwback to that era
without sounding even a little bit
outdated.
MICHAEL R. BERNSTEIN,
“Slower Learn”
Michael Bernstein is now based out
of the Washington, D.C., area, but back in
the ‘90s, he was a central figure in New York
City’s underground, thanks to his work with
Double Leopards and Religious Knives, two
bands that explored the hyphenated zones
of psych-, drone- and noise-rock. Appar-
ently, relocation (and the passage of time)
has mellowed Bernstein, even if it hasn’t
necessarily curbed his interest in hyp-
notizing tones. Released last
summer on the crucial
Feeding Tube Records
label, “Slower Learn” —
subtitled “Meditations
& Realizations for Five
Voices” — finds Bern-
stein exploring minimal-
ist synthesizer compo-
sition. With track lengths
stretching out to 11 minutes
and beyond, each of these tunes
provides ample space for Bernstein’s exper-
iments to unfold and mutate in tiny incre-
ments, creating an effect that’s mesmeriz-
ing but still melodic. Fans of Steve Reich,
La Monte Young and even Brian Eno, take
note: Here’s your deeply chilled head-trip of
the day!
e e
Ben Salmon is a Bend-based music journalist and host of
Left Of The Dial, which airs 8-10 p.m. Thursdays on KPOV,
88.9 FM and streams at kpov.org. You can find him on
Bandcamp and Twitter at @bcsalmon.