Watch “Bunny Rose” Video On Noisey
Braids are a three-piece experimental pop band from Montreal.
To record their third album, Deep In The Iris, Braids decamped to a series of retreats in the mountains of Arizona, Vermont, and upstate New York. Surrounded by nature in all its warm vitality, the longtime bandmates strove to shed the fabric of their day to day relationships, being bare and vulnerable before one another. What resulted is Deep In The Iris, their strongest record to date – powerful, yet fragile; immaculately sculpted, but deeply human.
Driven by roomy acoustic instrumentation and tasteful electronics, Deep In The Iris is easily Braids’ sunniest and most immediate record. While the icy, airless production of their second album Flourish // Perish suited the songs’ inward gaze, the widescreen warmth and full-bodied punch of Deep In The Iris are the perfect complement to its unflinching lyricism.
Raphaelle Standell has always had a formidable voice but rarely has it sounded as vital, focused, and powerful as it does here. True to the process that birthed it, the record explores a number of heavy subjects, including pornography, abuse, and slutshaming. Standell’s emotional vulnerability becomes a triumphant weapon in its own right: scything through wrongdoing and shame with equal aplomb, and clearing the way for the many others who will find resonance in the bravery of these lyrics. Written from a place of inspiring strength and unblinking lucidity, the lyricism of this record is a cathartic gift.
Longtime friends, Braids was formed in 2007 in Calgary, AB. After relocating to Montreal, the band released their critically acclaimed debut Native Speaker in 2011, and its 2013 follow-up Flourish // Perish. Consisting of Raphaelle Standell, Austin Tufts, and Taylor Smith, Braids are a collaborative whole, emphasizing a collective creative experience.
Deep In The Iris, out now on Arbutus Records (World), and Flemish Eye (Canada).
Listen to “Taste” On The FADER
Listen to “Miniskirt” On Pitchfork
 |
photo credit Landon Speers
Links
BRAIDS Website
Facebook
Twitter
Album Order
Tour Dates
11/06 Reykjavik, IS Iceland Airwaves (tix)
11/09 Rotterdam, NL Rotown (tix)
11/11 Utrecht, NL Ekko (tix)
11/13 Brussels, BE Botanique (tix)
11/14 Paris, FR L’Archipel (tix)
11/18 Ramsgate, UK Ramsgate Music Hall (tix)
11/19 Birmingham, UK The Oobleck (tix)
11/24 London, UK Scala ^ (tix)
11/25 Leeds, UK Headrow House (tix)
11/26 Bristol, UK Colston Hall (tix)
11/28 Prestatyn, UK ATP Festival (tix)
11/30 Sheffield, UK The Harley (tix)
12/01 Brighton, UK The Green Door Store (tix)
12/03 Amsterdam, NL OT301 (tix)
12/04 Copenhagen, DK Vega (tix)
12/05 Berlin, DE Kantine Am Berghain (tix)
^ w/ Gwilym Gold
Press Quotes
“[Deep In The Iris] is rich with startling little images: Stories of being pushed down the stairs, being confronted as a child for mistakes made, wanting to crack the eggs of a group of hatching pigeons flicker across the album’s lyrics. They dance above the quicksilver music, vivid and unreal, and illustrate that sometimes the clearest thing you can remember from a long-forgotten moment is the way the sun felt on your skin. – Pitchfork
“Throughout its nine songs, singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston and her cohorts Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts infuse skittering, Björk-like art-rock with melodic allure, confessional directness and quivering warmth. Deep In The Iris turns [Flourish // Perish‘s] same elements into lulling hymns to cleansing and redemption. Braids is not only more approachable than ever; it’s downright magnetic.” – NPR
“Braids’ songs revolve around loops and layers of guitars and keyboards, setting up cascading arpeggios and pointillistic cross-currents, pulsating drones and stereophonic ripples.” – New York Times
“glimmering, pastoral post-rock with foul-mouthed lyrics chirped unfiltered from the psyche of singer Raphelle Standell-Preston” – SPIN Magazine
“at times nutty, at times serene, mash-up of pastoral guitar babble, minimal orchestral drones, loopy chorale vocals and porous, roiling rhythms.” – Rolling Stone
“It’s heady music about the body and its imperatives. And it’s every bit as mesmerizing and vertiginous as desire can be.” – New York Times
“a unique, mesmerizing timbre that sounds like the reckless daughter of Panda Bear and Sugarcubes-era Bjork. …you have yourself one of the most invigoratingly singular pop tones racing across the blogosphere today.” – Blurt Magazine
