Artist: Brijean
Album: Macro
Reviewer: Chad Dryden
Brijean’s Treefort Music Hall set was a Top 5 highlight of my 2023 Treefort, and quite possibly the top of the top. Following the duo’s performance, my wife Erica and I beelined to the merch table and bought their entire discography, which consisted, at the time, of the debut full-length Feelings (2021) and the 2022 EP Angelo.
Macro is Brijean’s second full-length and third record overall (all for Matthew Dear’s forward-thinking Ghostly International label), and it picks up right where Angelo left off with 12 tracks of buttery nu-disco and lush psych-pop. Vocalist/percussionist Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart – whose fluid musical interplay on stage is a treat to watch in person – call their sound “back-room disco,” which paints an enticing portrait but only hints at the influences that color Macro: string-laden 60s pop, bossa nova, deep house, downtempo electronica and yes, disco. But the sum is better than its parts, and Macro is the best testament yet to the duo’s seemingly effortless ability to fuse disparate sounds into something wholly singular.
Not to mention immediately infectious and fun. Inside the space-age exotica lounge, if Air and Nightmares on Wax were the mood-setters and Thievery Corporation the late-night comedown, Brijean would be the peak-hour party starter, the heart of the warm groove that smoothly glides the evening into cosmic euphoria.