#bromptreb

Bromp Treb speaks a sonic language whose nouns and verbs are blips and points, pricks and jabs, dots and dashes – a kind of musical morse code that transmits wordless information relentlessly, as if the only punctuation it has no time for is an ellipsis. Neil Young Cloaca (also known as one of the masterminds behind veteran gray matter destroyers Fat Worm of Error) has been parsing out this delirious data for over a decade, but Concession Themes is his first full-length work to be encoded on oily plastic, an occasion Cloaca rises heartily to through a smart smattering of dizzying, hyper-logical misalignment.

If we can accept that the core of Bromp Treb is a singular sonic vocabulary, then perhaps Cloaca’s biggest genius lies in his coordinating conjunctions and dependent clauses – his endless toolkit of aural sentence structures that turn pointillist specks into textured musical color-storms. Yet somehow he also finds a range of timbre, tone, and mood inside all the solar showering; Concession Themes can be light or heavy, calm or consternating, funny or fractal. Sometimes it can be every adjective I can thesaurusize all at once, and those are the times I want to live in forever.

– Marc Masters

<a href="http://feedingtuberecords.bandcamp.com/album/concession-themes">Concession Themes by Bromp Treb</a>

NEIL YOUNG CLOACA on Concession Themes

At what point does it become clear to give up or let go? Is loosening your grip on a dream or a system or a path really about losing? Is negotiation failure? Is the white flag a signal of weakness and acquiescence? Do concessions mean a lack of commitment? Doesn’t snacking ruin your ability to fully engage with a meal of substance? Is there a hummable tune in the pingponging volley of indecision? Is that tune really just the resonant sound of the room? Doesn’t that then make the room a type of sampler or even a mold? Are those samples even discernible from their “originals”? If the medium is the message, then isn’t it probably safe to say that all systems are based on misinterpretations or at best, out of context quotes? What is the best method for removing a metaphoric stain? What is the easiest way to make music about wind? If a chain of themes are set in a narrative order does a story emerge? Can a gesture ever really be empty? Does a container ever reveal the true nature of its contents? Can collages be songs? Is it better to break the rule than to ask for permission? Aren’t there situations where transparency kills? Isn’t there more freedom in ambiguity?