Brakence is Back Like He Never Left on “ready or noT”

The reclusive glitch pop maximalist’s return to solo music starts off with a bang

It’s been near radio silence for almost four years since the release of Brakence’s sophomore album Hypochondriac, and “ready or noT” proves that the Ohio songwriter wasn’t just twiddling his thumbs while his fans' pleas for more music fell on deaf ears. In fact, Brakence has entered a second creative prime. As a teaser for his forthcoming album marroW, Brakence released point-and-click adventure game titled Knot Here, featuring a dark fantasy atmosphere. With this and the accompanying new single, there’s no doubt he’s bringing his A game for his comeback album.

“ready or NoT” features everything you’d want from a Brakence song: glitchy production, beautiful vocals and intricate guitar work. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does show a considerable level of growth in musicianship from Brakence as his lyrics gain a sort of arcane edge to them. He croons about fighting and subsequently accepting parts of himself that he wants to lock away, all over a superbly produced punchy glitch pop instrumental that never sounds overindulgent.

There is a bit of story telling that is unfortunately lost here without playing Knot Here, or watching the equally bizarre and intriguing puppet driven music video. Lines like “‘Cause I caught a wink when I served up the coup de grâce / The tables turning, I can't kill this wicked vermin” hit harder when seeing the rat in the video be sliced and turned into a soup, but the occasional lack of clarity doesn’t stop this from being one of Brakence’s most fully realized tracks ever.

Brakence’s forthcoming album marroW releases on October 23.