“¡Atenciòn!” is the latest full-length album by Broken Filters, an exceptional Stockholm-based band. The album consists of five longevous tracks, spanning across many different but complementary music genres. Broken Filters are pros in compiling various styles to illustrate a fresh, unique, rich, and luxurious ambiance that immediately grabs your attention and refuses to let go. Perhaps experimental rock comes to mind first, but you’ll notice how other sonic ingredients borrowed from krautrock, psych-rock, art-rock, free-jazz, alternative, and many others lurk around throughout every composition. These profoundly creative musicians use all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to uplift the ambiance on an entirely new level while simultaneously remaining in the primary sonic direction. Therefore, these experimentations with many different but complementary music genres will resonate with even the pickiest listeners and beyond.
Broken Filters experiment with their sound on the go. They recorded all their tracks in the studio in one take, allowing the listener to submerge his listening apparatus in an almost live listening experience. Therefore, these tracks sound more natural than anything you could hear on a contemporary scene nowadays. These folks figured out which genres perfectly align with their ideas, and they went to the studio and recorded everything they intended to convey through their music. The result is more than impressive. Each composition delivers a comprehensive collection of sonic and rhythmic maneuvers that will satisfy anyone even remotely into experimental rock music. Their brilliant ideas and exceptional musicianship shine from every note and beat from scratch to finish, proving that this amalgam of musical styles can still indulge and impress.
“Ships Out At Sea” serves as an adequate introduction to this fine piece of sonic artistry, allowing the listener to comprehend what Broken Filters is all about. From that point, each next track only goes into the depths of their luxurious sound. Their levitations between psych-rock and kraut rock perfectly pair their avant-rock, experimental, and free jazz side. Of course, there are subtle nods to the eighties post-punk scene, a small but significant detail that showcases Broken Filters are pretty much into a wide array of music genres. Each instrument resonates with clarity, details, and precision from the beginning to the end. Still, there’s a sense of looseness that makes this material more natural. You’ll solely enjoy all the calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal, psychedelic keys, while the generously distorted guitars shape the perfect backdrop with their raw, abrasive, jangly chord progressions. In the meantime, the equally intricate, warm-sounding basslines offer more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth, while binding everything together. The experienced drummer dictates groover and tempo while keeping everything in line with cleverly assembled, moderate, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. Every member plays a significant role in this sonic equation, so a pleasant listening experience is more than guaranteed.
“Studio 55” is also another standout of the material. One of those tracks clocking almost twelve minutes, it provides a profound take on many mentioned music genres. It dives deep into the fundamentals of experimental rock while paying homage to some of the best elements psych-rock and krautrock music scene has to offer. Still, “Studio 55” showcases many signature moves of Broken Filters, proving that these obscure music genres still have so many to offer. The longevous overture leans towards cinematic ambiance while the guitar delivers many experimentations and accentuations. “Studio 55” slowly evolves into additional rhythmic patterns and detailed low-ends, while the ethereal synth ambiances remain constantly present in the mix. The song becomes even more psychedelic and experimental towards the end, and the band nailed it to the max. “Enno Kluge” is a short minimalist free-jazz piece that acts more as an interlude into “Goat,” which is another excellent number. “Goat” explores krautrock waters, with its retro-sounding instrumentations. The interplay between guitars and synths sounds divine, offering an entrance into a lush sonic voyage where tiny nuances and details keep your focus. Still, the song develops by delivering much heavier and more powerful instrumentations where those guitar and synth works offer even more experimentation while the intricate basslines and jazzy drumming build foundations for all these sonic maneuvers to shine upon.
“Sång till Peter G. och Ola P.” closes this magnificent full-length album by diving even deeper into nostalgic psych, kraut, art, and experimental rock. It’s such a perfect closure to this marvelous release, as each band member shines on the limelight from scratch to finish. In nearly fourteen minutes, Broken Filters take a deep dive into the core of their sonic direction by delivering catchy virtuosities, melodic ambiances and keys, propelling low-ends, and tribal rhythmic patterns. You’ll also notice a brass section lurking around, so “Sång till Peter G. och Ola P.” dives into free jazz more than any other song on this material. As usual, this marvelous composition gradually becomes more complex and luxurious, showcasing a grand finale of this magnificent full-length release. Broken Filters are not joking around with their music, and they proved that once again with these five compositions. Each track stands as a sheer example of their abilities, as every member delivers premium ideas and musicianship to the table. Therefore, you should grab “¡Atenciòn!” on vinyl as soon as possible, because it’s strictly limited to 100 copies with screenprinted covers. Head to the Broken Filters Bandcamp page for more information about ordering.
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