Brogan Bentley - The Snake

Brogan Bentley returns with his debut LP, The Snake. It's 12 compositions writhe, slink, and crawl through the dark fog-scape of Bentleys native San Francisco in the Year of the Snake. The Snake is a sonic documentation of coming into new skin, living in it and shedding it.Fittingly, it's an album of transformation, winding its way around the brooding, Burial-esque whispers of No Less, the ecstatic juke of Give Myself to You, the sparse acid lines of Last Light, and closing with the anthemic diva house send off Goodbye. Despite such radical shifts in colour, the album remarkably plays out in a natural and captivating sequence. Mournful and uplifting in equal measure, this collection of contemplative yet propulsive dance tracks captures the scope of living, loving, and grasping for understanding all at the same time.Opening track The Difference puts raspy and soulful vocals up front. Even when his own vocals ease further back in the mix, they lend an element of songcraft often lacking in house music of this stripe. Elsewhere, evocative vocal samples drive the action, shredded and pitch-shifted for maximum emotional impact. Even at The Snakes most tortured or introspective, there is a sense of foreword momentum. Each element is meticulously placed in the mix, and each track takes you somewhere different: a dark alleyway, between the sheets, or the dance floor.