The Brown Christmas Vs. The Bored of Education (Playing Catch up part 3)

The Brown Christmas is the perfect cure for your boredom; with ten tracks covering everything from ambient, synth-pop, to sludge rock, you're sure to be entertained. Enjoy the loosely held together chaos that you've come to expect from The Brown Christmas. You'll find plenty of composed build ups and steep energetic slopes on this short rollercoaster ride.

The opening track "Raven's Talons" grabs the listener with piercing synthy claws, cascades through hazy drones, and drops you into a nest where you're devoured by abrasive chattering. As the anxiety of the first track fades away the tone shifts on "Leisure Speed" to a kind of triumphant yearning. This track is one of those catchy, almost pop tunes that seems to occasionally emerge from out murky slurry. A simple melody punctuated by a bouncy bass line, and gently fading away with a piano solo.

This leads to probably the highlight of this album; a slow droning version of "Cataract Jack" that is both ghostly and beautiful. What is normal a frantic, zany jig has been stretched out and melted. Deep percussive tones echo the main melody at a snails pace, while breathy textures create a sense of unease.

"Cataract Jack" is a delicate veil gently blowing in a dusty window; contrast this with bellowing heavy presence of "T-Boned Semi." Lumbering along powerfully, this track's defining feature is the sludgy distorted bass playing by Joemazing. I set a steady pace with the drums and then simply enjoy the ride as Joemazing pushes his mixer to the limit, turning it into a crunchy fuzz pedal.

From here things get kicked into high gear with the feverish "Scarab Outrun." We're skidding along barely maintaining control, kicking up plumes of dust, and quickly approaching a summit. With the toll of a bell we fall apart and gradually float to the ground with the track "Course Winds Blow Brittle Reeds."

The album ends with a short duet between the Roland D50 and it's modern recreation the D05. It's merry, light hearted, and the perfect silly goodbye.