Object of Unknown Function by Brandon Seabrook

The electrifying free jazz guitar of Brandon Seabrook tells a vivid story on Object of Unknown Function, an album jittering under the pressure of its own entropy as a depressive abyss opens beneath. Furious guitar and banjo licks play the protagonist role in this narrative, tracing the silhouette of absolute mania with half-finished melodies, sour arpeggios, extreme tremolo, and hair-raising strumming. Immediately, this mania appears tinged in darkness with its blue notes and suspended chords, assuring us that this elevated state lives on borrowed time. Periodically, however, we crane our necks over the edge of our high vantage point, revealing the pits of despair beneath. We and our protagonist know that the pure kinetic energy of mania never escapes the force of gravity, and the musical proof arrives in sudden cuts to yawning caverns of low noise, intense bass, and melancholic drone. After a long flight on the wings of stolen positivity, the debt of depression repays itself, flinging us from our uncomfortable yet superficially safe position into a dark, damp world of pain.