Braving the Seabed – S/T

This self-titled disc from Australian quartet Braving the Seabed is like walking along an ocean shoreline while holding hands with a lifelong friend. The band creates a quiet, swirling atmosphere that almost perfectly mimics the comfort of a long heart-to-heart talk with a trusted confidant.
The key to Braving the Seabed’s warm tones is in the amazing interplay between the band’s guitar players, Kirsty and Mitch (no last names given on the band’s website bio). The soft, lulling guitar sounds create a calming effect, as the melodies and nuances of the songs themselves carry ears through the aural equivalent of rolling hills and valleys.
The disc’s strongest moments come in emotional swells brought on by blossoms of incredible lead guitar work. These swells evolve so subtly from the disc’s dreamy rhythms that it takes multiple listens to fully appreciate how delicate and elaborate the evolution is. Listening to a track like “Walking Across Highrises” is like watching a flower bloom in the spring. At first, the song seems standard enough. Eventually, Kirsty’s angelic vocals glide across the song’s intricate rhythm, slowly gaining in strength and power as the track meanders along. The final two minutes of the song head down a winding soundscape, led by soft and delicate lead guitar that is as powerful as it is beautiful. Eventually, the lead guitar blends itself back in with the rhythm, so that the end of the track finds itself just as unassuming as the beginning.
Experiences like this are repeated throughout the disc. “A Perfect Silence” creates a stark mood, enhanced by a sadly droning slide guitar. Sadness fully sets in when the band instrumentation drops out, leaving a piano and a haunting string section to support the vocals. The guitars quietly chime back in as Rob plaintively complains, “I’m being treated like someone you’d beat on.” “To Sea” builds on a minimal (though pretty) guitar line with more of Kirsty’s cherubic voice, winding and twisting with more amazingly delicate intertwined guitar parts that eventually blend into another softly powerful guitar solo.
Braving the Seabed’s self-titled release falls into a category much like labelmates thestringandreturn. The disc has definite highlights, but the point here is to listen to the disc as one entirely sublime listening experience. The overall effect is breathtaking, with quiet rhythms giving way to emotional guitar swells before fading back again. The highlights of the disc definitely revolve around the band’s amazing lead guitar work, but even those moments lose something when taken out of context from the rest of the disc.
This recording is perfect to put on repeat for those late-night, meaningful conversations. In a perfect world, all thoughts and words would flow as easily as the beauty does from this disc. Braving the Seabed has created a CD that can simply be categorized as “pretty.” This one’s a definite keeper.