Breton

War Room Stories
Cut Tooth/Believe Recordings

War Room Stories is an extraordinary album. At its heart is a wonderful and vast muddle of textures – found sounds, atmospheric synths and subtle movements. The five members of Breton have taken those textures and transformed them into one amazingly inspired pop album.

The record was made in Berlin, in a studio complex somewhat overrun by plant and animal life. Part of the fun is hearing the story of that space develop as the music plays. The studio complex – Funkhaus – was previously used to broadcast Communist propaganda, and that rich history runs through the veins of the album.

There are plenty of great moments here: the heartbeat percussion and plucked strings of S4, the triumphant orchestration on National Grid, the collision of sounds on Brothers. Perhaps most of all, it’s the final moments of album closer Fifteen Minutes, which is given over to the sound of the building itself – a fitting end for what must have been an absolutely unique and epic recording experience. www.breton.bandcamp.com.

Rob Boffard