Henry Greenleaf
Brawn
bbbbbb
What would happen if the rhythmic prowess of early Pearson Sound was combined with the overdriven swagger of peak Ed Banger? On Brawn, Henry Greenleaf appears determined to find out. The four-track EP is the London producer’s debut outing on Bjarki’s bbbbbb imprint, and it revels in the physicality of sound, whether he’s cartoonishly stretching his basslines like rubber bands or dropping bulbous drum hits that land with all the subtlety of a punch to the face.
Brawn is by no means an orderly record, but it’s not a chaotic one either. Greenleaf has real knack for sound design—and his high-flying architecture does occasionally recall the IMAX-ready rave of artists like Verraco and LWS—but he’s not afraid to push the levels into the red, particularly when giant, laser-like synth blasts are involved. Those blasts take center stage on the EP’s lovably rowdy title track, which bounds along with all the delicacy of a toddler let loose in an antique shop. “Jump Up to Be” and the muscular “Gawk” exude a similar sense of youthful exuberance, their serrated sonics harkening back to pre-moronic era of wobble bass, before the record shifts gears with closing number “UNTUNTUNT,” a clunking, clanking bruiser that playfully lives up to the onomatopoeia in its title. Much like the rest of the EP, it’s not exactly a graceful number, but its enthusiastic strut sure is fun.