The music of Broken Hands for Brilliant Minds is a kind that's very useful in sleep assistance and little else. Clocking in at well over an hour with only six tracks to its name, you can probably already guess what to expect from this album. Songs that are abnormally prolonged, purposefully simplistic and, if you actually try to pay attention, pretty monotonous. But this music wasn't intended to be exciting or catchy, right? This is "mood" music. The kind not to be enjoyed while operating heavy machinery. It's kinda like Sigur Ros mixed with Brian Eno's early solo work, played on a Walkman with dangerously low batteries.
The songs are built on textures, not melody, and on sprawling atmospheres in place of rhythm. The overall tone is dark and claustrophobic, sounding almost as if its haunting synthesizers had been recorded underwater. Nearly all of the tracks are nothing more than synth meanderings in desperate need of accompaniment, though "Above the Horizon" contains some hushed, distorted vocals and percussion, and supposedly there's some guitar on the record somewhere, but I couldn't find it. Basically, if you're not into the ambient thing then you'll probably find this album a little too boring. Then again, even if you are into the ambient thing there's a good chance you'll feel the same way.
1.5/4
