No way, Bryan! Another Brave Little Abacus? And a WHOLE album review? This is hands down the only channel I’d ever want that from. You always bring so much knowledge and perspective to these reactions, even when the music’s totally out of your usual taste, and I just know you’ll kill it with this one. Their work is so stunning. They’re one of those rare gems that completely transcend the boundaries of their genre, and I just know you'd dig them. The instrumentation, the colorful vibrant horns, the vocals that barely hit the right notes but when they do its so much more impacting, THE DRUMMING ON THIS OH MY GOD! Phenomenal! Even the lore behind the band is amazing, they were just a bunch of high school friends (i believe) who formed a group purely out of a shared love for music. And organically these amazing masterpieces were created. I fell in love with this band one summer on a vacation in Croatia, the memory itself is bittersweet because of the people I went there with, but the memory of the album always brings me back. And to many other places also, I feel like the term nostalgia-wave, although a bit meme-y, perfectly captures the essence of this music. In my own weird way, I see it as the polar opposite of Boards of Canada. Both totally different realms of music genre wise, yet they both delve into this nostalgia feeling. Boards of Canada's sound is cold, mechanical, and desolate - as if you're trespassing. In contrast, Brave Little Abacus is warm, inviting, and evokes a longing that urges you to linger a bit longer in this nostalgia trip, even knowing it will eventually tear you apart ... And the layers in this, oh myy goddd, I could listen to both of their records all day long and never get bored, I've never been bored since I discovered them, there's so much going on that you can always find something new to lock on to and enjoy it from a whole new perspective. Truly dense piece of art ♥ Thank you for these amazing reactions man!
I screamed with excitement when I got this notification holy shit Edit: I think the reason they seperated Return and Through Hallways is because Returns lyrics are practically a summary of Hallways and since they were seperated, on the CD release they would get their own area on the lyric sheet.
dude!! the rush of dopamine i just felt seeing a 3-hour long brave little abacus reaction pop up in my recommendation feed. INSTANT SUB!!!! edit: i just checked your page and saw reactions of FISHMANS, SUFJAN STEVENS, XIU XIU, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE AND BORIS TOO!!! AHHHH HOW DIDN'T I DISCOVER THIS CHANNEL EARLIER??? I'M GONNA BE BINGE WATCHING YOUR VIDEOS ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the community! We have an eclectic bunch here so the requests are all over the spectrum but what's fairly consistent is that I cover bands that most channels don't. And it sounds like you're gonna fit in just fine :)
i'm so glad to see SOMEONE reacting to this album on the internet, thank you! also, I've always thought the "tin can warble guitar" you mention after the vocals end on i see it too was one of the band members gargling into the mic with some post-processing haha
That puts a lot of this in perspective. At one point I had mentioned that I didn't know their age but that the music did a great job of encompassing both teenage awkwardness and a coming of age story well so them being in high school makes a lot of sense.
One of my all time favorite albums. vocals and drones are something that you can sorta relate to spicy or sour food. Some ppl like it and some ppl dont, and if you dont like it then you can deeply enjoy foods that stick to universal salty, sweet, and savory flavors. But if you do like it, then food that lacks spicy or sour flavors feels bland or limited. I love dissonance and drones more than most people, and so albums that lack those elements completely feel safe and uninspiring while albums like this that (intentionally or otherwise) incorporate it end up appealing so strongly to me in a way that a "clean" album simply couldn't. I appreciate your time and active engagement with the music even if it wasn't to your taste! great work as always
it's so surprising to me honestly that after so many different noise and otherwise chaotic requests your tolerance for repetition and dissonance is so low. Perhaps it's impossible for you to get things that seem to come so naturally to people like me perhaps. Anyway, this is like one of 3 albums I consider flawless, peak musicianship. Strong, honed in aesthetic, incredible instrumental interplay and just perfect album flow that makes it go by in a blink of an eye, perfect transmission of emotional states.
WAIT THIS IS AWESOME!!!! I remember seeing your other video on BLA and now I come back to your Chanel and see this. This morning is awesome. Maybe we could be blessed enough to get a full review of just got back from the discomfort?
i really appreciate the care and consideration you put into the analysis of this even though it clearly wasn’t clicking for you. this album is definitely flawed in terms of a lot of its musical fundamentals but what i think it’s important to mention, as i’ve seen some comment bring up, is how young these guys were. masked dancers was thrown together by literal highschoolers fucking around in cubase. adam demirjian, the singer, guitarist and drummer has gone on record saying they were just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying to find some way to express the complicated transition he was going through in life. if you’re intrigued by the band I would highly recommend you listen to their last album “just got back from the discomfort” which funnels a lot of the creative and experimental aspects of this album into a much tighter package. the band has admitted themselves that masked dancers was almost more of a trial run and that just got back serves as a more matured and seasoned form of their unique sonic and emotional palate. the droning and repetition is downplayed in favour of much more focused songwriting that elaborates a lot on the use of reoccurring themes and motifs. still though, great video man! love when you cover this kind of stuff
I’ve already seen some reaction videos of their 2nd album, but masked dancers is so rare.. Thank you so much. It’s one of my all-time favorite albums :)
Hell yeah, this was awesome, this is my favorite album too, I think an album you should listen to is "Tell me about the long dark path home" from "Newfound Interest In Connecticut" which I think it's actually the best Emo album of all time, a very slow and intense listen that really stuck with me, I think you could really like it 😊
Awesome video on an awesome album! as far as I know this was recorded in Adam’s basement. They didn’t have a drummer so these probably weren’t live sessions but rather the 3 members recording their own parts and putting them together for each song, lots of sampling and really good writing.
Glad you listened to this. Hope you get to their second album at some point, I personally like it much better than this album (although I like a lot of the stuff in this album). Their second album is still very rough, but I think that its put together much better.
Love the reaction! If you want to hear this style of emo perfected I'd recommend checking out "Home Like No Place Is There" by The Hotelier if you haven't already. One of the best modern emo albums! would love to hear what you think.
you probably should have reacted to their second album instead of this lol Only thing is the second album doesn’t have as much fun guitar shredding as this one
No way, Bryan! Another Brave Little Abacus? And a WHOLE album review? This is hands down the only channel I’d ever want that from. You always bring so much knowledge and perspective to these reactions, even when the music’s totally out of your usual taste, and I just know you’ll kill it with this one.
Their work is so stunning. They’re one of those rare gems that completely transcend the boundaries of their genre, and I just know you'd dig them. The instrumentation, the colorful vibrant horns, the vocals that barely hit the right notes but when they do its so much more impacting, THE DRUMMING ON THIS OH MY GOD! Phenomenal! Even the lore behind the band is amazing, they were just a bunch of high school friends (i believe) who formed a group purely out of a shared love for music. And organically these amazing masterpieces were created. I fell in love with this band one summer on a vacation in Croatia, the memory itself is bittersweet because of the people I went there with, but the memory of the album always brings me back. And to many other places also, I feel like the term nostalgia-wave, although a bit meme-y, perfectly captures the essence of this music. In my own weird way, I see it as the polar opposite of Boards of Canada. Both totally different realms of music genre wise, yet they both delve into this nostalgia feeling. Boards of Canada's sound is cold, mechanical, and desolate - as if you're trespassing. In contrast, Brave Little Abacus is warm, inviting, and evokes a longing that urges you to linger a bit longer in this nostalgia trip, even knowing it will eventually tear you apart ...
And the layers in this, oh myy goddd, I could listen to both of their records all day long and never get bored, I've never been bored since I discovered them, there's so much going on that you can always find something new to lock on to and enjoy it from a whole new perspective. Truly dense piece of art ♥
Thank you for these amazing reactions man!
I screamed with excitement when I got this notification holy shit
Edit: I think the reason they seperated Return and Through Hallways is because Returns lyrics are practically a summary of Hallways and since they were seperated, on the CD release they would get their own area on the lyric sheet.
dude!! the rush of dopamine i just felt seeing a 3-hour long brave little abacus reaction pop up in my recommendation feed. INSTANT SUB!!!!
edit: i just checked your page and saw reactions of FISHMANS, SUFJAN STEVENS, XIU XIU, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE AND BORIS TOO!!! AHHHH HOW DIDN'T I DISCOVER THIS CHANNEL EARLIER??? I'M GONNA BE BINGE WATCHING YOUR VIDEOS ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the community! We have an eclectic bunch here so the requests are all over the spectrum but what's fairly consistent is that I cover bands that most channels don't. And it sounds like you're gonna fit in just fine :)
i'm so glad to see SOMEONE reacting to this album on the internet, thank you!
also, I've always thought the "tin can warble guitar" you mention after the vocals end on i see it too was one of the band members gargling into the mic with some post-processing haha
Also wanted to mention, these guys were in high school when they wrote and recorded this. High school kids.
Yep, and Adam not only recorded vocals but all guitar parts and drums. Genuinely insane.
That puts a lot of this in perspective. At one point I had mentioned that I didn't know their age but that the music did a great job of encompassing both teenage awkwardness and a coming of age story well so them being in high school makes a lot of sense.
One of my all time favorite albums. vocals and drones are something that you can sorta relate to spicy or sour food. Some ppl like it and some ppl dont, and if you dont like it then you can deeply enjoy foods that stick to universal salty, sweet, and savory flavors. But if you do like it, then food that lacks spicy or sour flavors feels bland or limited. I love dissonance and drones more than most people, and so albums that lack those elements completely feel safe and uninspiring while albums like this that (intentionally or otherwise) incorporate it end up appealing so strongly to me in a way that a "clean" album simply couldn't.
I appreciate your time and active engagement with the music even if it wasn't to your taste! great work as always
it's so surprising to me honestly that after so many different noise and otherwise chaotic requests your tolerance for repetition and dissonance is so low. Perhaps it's impossible for you to get things that seem to come so naturally to people like me perhaps. Anyway, this is like one of 3 albums I consider flawless, peak musicianship. Strong, honed in aesthetic, incredible instrumental interplay and just perfect album flow that makes it go by in a blink of an eye, perfect transmission of emotional states.
WAIT THIS IS AWESOME!!!! I remember seeing your other video on BLA and now I come back to your Chanel and see this. This morning is awesome. Maybe we could be blessed enough to get a full review of just got back from the discomfort?
I can't guarantee anything but I'll be checking out albums at a higher frequency next year so there's definitely a chance I get to that.
i really appreciate the care and consideration you put into the analysis of this even though it clearly wasn’t clicking for you. this album is definitely flawed in terms of a lot of its musical fundamentals but what i think it’s important to mention, as i’ve seen some comment bring up, is how young these guys were. masked dancers was thrown together by literal highschoolers fucking around in cubase. adam demirjian, the singer, guitarist and drummer has gone on record saying they were just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying to find some way to express the complicated transition he was going through in life. if you’re intrigued by the band I would highly recommend you listen to their last album “just got back from the discomfort” which funnels a lot of the creative and experimental aspects of this album into a much tighter package. the band has admitted themselves that masked dancers was almost more of a trial run and that just got back serves as a more matured and seasoned form of their unique sonic and emotional palate. the droning and repetition is downplayed in favour of much more focused songwriting that elaborates a lot on the use of reoccurring themes and motifs. still though, great video man! love when you cover this kind of stuff
I’ve already seen some reaction videos of their 2nd album, but masked dancers is so rare..
Thank you so much. It’s one of my all-time favorite albums :)
The singer is actually also the drummer and guitarist!
Hell yeah, this was awesome, this is my favorite album too, I think an album you should listen to is "Tell me about the long dark path home" from "Newfound Interest In Connecticut" which I think it's actually the best Emo album of all time, a very slow and intense listen that really stuck with me, I think you could really like it 😊
dudeee yeahhh nict is so good
Oh wow! I was not expecting a full album review of this, what a treat 🎉
Awesome video on an awesome album! as far as I know this was recorded in Adam’s basement. They didn’t have a drummer so these probably weren’t live sessions but rather the 3 members recording their own parts and putting them together for each song, lots of sampling and really good writing.
this video was such a great watch!! i definitely think you’d like their second album a lot more, its got more solid vocals i think
I jumped in my chair
Glad you listened to this. Hope you get to their second album at some point, I personally like it much better than this album (although I like a lot of the stuff in this album). Their second album is still very rough, but I think that its put together much better.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO this is one of my favourite albums ever. Map of the Stars is magical.
The best emo album of all time.
hey now the album after this exists
@@Transcedant Second best emo album of all time 😊
Love the reaction! If you want to hear this style of emo perfected I'd recommend checking out "Home Like No Place Is There" by The Hotelier if you haven't already. One of the best modern emo albums! would love to hear what you think.
He never existed in the first place is my favorite but it seems to annoy a lot of people ^^
no wayy
you probably should have reacted to their second album instead of this lol
Only thing is the second album doesn’t have as much fun guitar shredding as this one
:)