It's weird that you can listen to a record 20-odd times and you're still not entirely sure what the next song is going to sound, or more importantly, feel like. Mind you there's a good chance it will start off with a simple melody as it pulls you close in an embrace and starts to whisper in your ear. Just don't count on it always being gentle and loving, for this is truly a record of emotional contrasts that pretty much cover the full spectrum. It's this lottery that creates an album whose style helps break the record free from so many post-rock cliches.
If you followed the process of making the record on fb or twitter you'd know how much thought and effort Sydney trio Solkyri put into the making of their debut album Are You My Brother. It's really paid off too, because despite the familiarity of the different styles found on the record, the breadth is at the same time adventurous and harmonious, and there's enough experimentation to prevent it from just sounding like so much other music.
'Home' contains beautiful warbling vocals from Hannah Cameron, who also provided the lyrics. Her voice is strong but largely restrained and a far cry from the girlie sounds pervading Australian indie pop at the moment. Full of individual character, she builds on the sadness set up in the introduction with almost a tinge of folk, although the structure is more linear than cyclical. Vocals are also used in the final track, although they are strictly musical rather than lyrical. Other than these two it's strictly instrumental.
There are periods of sheer uplifting joy in tracks like 'With Strawberries Like Dead Men' and 'Threads of an Old Life', yet even here the former gets you punching the air or trying to keep up with some fast air-drumming, while Threads is more happy, content and almost has a sense of relief, as if rebuilding from tragedy rather than happy in isolation.
That's not to say Strawberries is all joy and the opening half contains an element of fear and uncertainty, almost despair with its powerful use of strings and piano. The dynamics of the song are magical with great use of resonance, silence, and towering, majestic layers of sound. The production in the record is of consistent quality but it's here that it shines the most, as if this is the reference point. In fact the song feels like the reference point for the whole album in every way and that the other songs all exist in some kind of relationship to it more so than to each other. It's a different feeling than when you might pick out a favourite or stand-out track, or that one song you often find that contains elements of all other songs. It's like this is Solkyri in its natural state and the other songs are its other moods.
It's in this context that the two shortest tracks 'Oklahundt' and 'Glory' work well, being very simple and reflecting that emotions and feelings are not always intense or complicated. Call them fillers if you must, but they are not simply bridges between songs. 'I Am The Motherfucker', on the other hand, is long, intense and anguished, with great swells of anger and despair.
Are You My Brother doesn't grab you and hold you or shake you like some records do. Solkyri use restraint and subtlety, allowing the rich contrast, diversity and dynamics to keep you engaged. By usual post-rock standards these songs don't all belong together in one place, but the fact these brilliantly performed and produced songs are in one place is the reason the record's so fucking awesome.
