Kevin Bronson on November 6th, 2008

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Like a lot of guys, Bram Inscore has relationship issues, and to listen to the first album he has made as B.R.A.M., plenty of those woes stem from breakdowns in communications. But like a like of songwriters, Inscore, curiously, has little problem communicating those miscommunications.

Written and recorded over a three-year period during which the San Francisco native played and collaborated with numerous L.A. bands — he’s currently Beck’s bassist — the yet-to-be-released album dots the i and crosses the t’s in bittersweet.”  “I was going through a part of my life where I was dealing with a lot of this stuff … the adolescent stuff,” he says. “Now I’m getting it out of my system.”

||| Stream: “Messages”

At turns glitchy, glammy, spacey, funky and twinkling, B.R.A.M.’s playful electro-pop reflects the work of a guy whose touchstones are as likely to be rooted in the 1960s as the ’80s, even if you wish at times he’d gone for some bigger thematic material. “There’s definitely a wide spectrum of things I’m into,” he says, “but I also think I have a short attention span — I don’t stay in one place too long.

“Then again, it’s not like I went into a studio and recorded it all at once. I don’t even know if it sounds like a band … but I’ve tried to make it sound as organic as possible.”

Now, if only he could get that girl to return his phone call.

Inscore has become a familiar face around town, performing with the likes of Inara George, the Watson Twins, Benji Hughes, Obi Best and Willoughby. As for his current job with Beck, Inscore was asked to audition by keyboardist Brian Lebarton. “I’ve listened to Beck’s music since I was a kid, so it’s a thrill,” Inscore says. “After a time, though, it gets less surreal.”

* Updated: Stream the whole album on Soundcloud.

||| Live: B.R.A.M. performs Nov. 17 at Spaceland. Inscore will be manning the bass for the Beck on Sunday and Monday at the new Club Nokia in downtown L.A.

Photo by Sarah Creighton