Disquiet

The title of the track is “With Broken Heart and Sharp Mind.” The album is the self-titled release by We Are Bright & Broken. Perhaps that mention of a “heart” helps explain the intermittent beep, a sharp bright ping that is not consonant with the light and slow guitar-like looping that is the majority of what’s heard. This beeping isn’t metrically precise enough — it doesn’t arrive at a regular pace — to be the sound of a heart monitor in a hospital, though it certainly suggests such a thing: electronic audio that symbolizes, that verifies, actual life. What that beep in the song really does is distract from other sounds whose textures are further belied by the work’s surface placidity, notably an emerging and rough noise, like a microphone being bullied by the wind (MP3). The desire to listen more closely isn’t mistaken. The release includes limited information, just a list of equipment (“Two studies for electric guitar, sine generator and ring modulator”) and this telling advisory:

“Note: These tracks contain frequencies far below the capabilities of earbuds and computer speakers. Please listen accordingly.”

By Marc Weidenbaum