BIG|BRAVE remove the drums and let in grief or in hope rumble the bones clean

BIG|BRAVE’s in grief or in hope enters the 25 June review cycle with a bold subtraction: no drums. For a band already known for turning amplified guitar tone into a physical environment, that absence makes the music even starker. The Montreal trio’s new Thrill Jockey album reportedly enfolds itself in resonant, rumbling guitar sound, with Robin Wattie’s voice arriving like prayer inside the roar. Pitchfork frames it as perhaps their warmest and brightest pool of cold, dark sounds, which is exactly the kind of contradiction BIG|BRAVE have earned over ten albums. Their music can be punishing and soothing at once, a vibration that feels less like a riff than an elemental being summoned through wires. in grief or in hope sounds like solitude made enormous, and maybe like a buzzing mind being cleaned by volume.

Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/big-brave-in-grief-or-in-hope/