Stream: Brainstory, ‘Breathe’

Kevin Bronson on August 23rd, 2019

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Ever since they swooped out of Rialto in 2015, Brainstory has been baking minds and melting hearts. The trio — Kevin and Tony Martin and drummer Eric Hagstrom — are old souls in a cold, digital world, making expansive, psychotropic music for the bonfires of the heart. You wonder how many fingerprints the Martin brothers left on their grandparents’ ancient jazz, soul, funk and pop records.

The trio released mini-albums in 2015 and ’17 via El Relleno Records, the label of sonic brethren Chicano Batman. And now Brainstory has linked up with Brooklyn-based independent Big Crown Records to release their debut full-length, “Buck” (out Nov. 22). They made the album with label co-founder Leon Michels at the Legendary Diamond Mine studio in Queens, knocking out 10 songs in 10 days.

The trio calls “Buck” “a state of mind,” so how to get there? Follow the directive in the album’s lead track “Breathe,” which is warmer than a summer’s night in the Inland Empire. “‘Breathe’ is a song about letting go of the emotional baggage of our lives in order to become who we truly are,” the band says. “Before this new journey can happen we got to stop and take a breath. Relax. Use the power of this simple act to become your higher self.”

||| Stream: “Breathe”