slumberland records

LA Record

Don't be discouraged by the lackluster cover art, a watery-looking band photo topped with the album title in scribbly font–San Francisco's Brilliant Colors triumphantly deliver ten noise-pop nuggets on their debut album Introducing Brilliant Colors. Taking cues from C86-era British outfits like The Shop Assistants and The Flatmates, singer/guitarist Jess Scott layers pretty (but not afraid to be fierce) female vocals under plenty of reverb and fuzzy guitar. Diane Anastasio (drums) and Michelle Hill (bass) anchor Scott's buried vocals and blissed-out guitar wash with their combination of tight, rhythmic beats and hooky bass lines. My favorite track on the album, "English Cities," blends edgy and angular guitar pop in equal proportions, suitable for both disaffected former riot grrrls and postpunk DJs alike. Other standout tracks include "Short Sleeves at Night" (my vote for indie pop song title of the year) and "Over There," the latter reminding me that you should never need more than two or three chords to write a great song.

Comparisons to fellow contemporary C86-inspired ladies the Vivian Girls will undoubtedly crop up for Brilliant Colors. While both bands employ similar sound textures and production styles (think Creation Records circa 1991), Brilliant Colors' songwriting prowess stands out amongst the other Girls. Beneath all the echo and fuzz you still need a well-crafted melody to keep the listener engaged, and Brilliant Colors get this. Introducing Brilliant Colors is an impressive full-length debut.

- Natalie Hill

Tiny Mix Tapes

These noisy pop bands are proliferating like disaster movies. Yet unlike the spectacularly hopeless film genre, this musical trend has been welcome and in many cases enthralling. Bands like No Age, Cause Co-Motion!, Times New Viking, and Eat Skull have each recently delivered strong records of throttled, frayed, melodic pop. Still, with its surface-level simplicity and seemingly obvious sonic limitations, it's tempting to analyze this entire genre with the release of each record. That, or make sweeping, careless commentary like "noise-pop's newest album, Introducing Brilliant Colors sounds like The Go Go's covering Pink Flag."

Truth be told, Brilliant Colors — a San Francisco-based trio consisting of principal songwriter Jess Scott, Diane Anastasio, and Michelle Hill — hurl forth powerful if not surprising hooks from their dense, urgent music. With just 10 songs in 24 minutes, the band's debut album, Introducing Brilliant Colors, manages to evoke chunks of 60s psychedelia, 70s UK punk and no-wave, 80s jangle-pop, 90s indie-rock, and 00s minimalism. With foot-to-accelerator punk-rock abandon, it charges unrelentingly through each of these wall-of-distortion ditties, scrappy riffs and all. Beneath this guise of power and art damage, however, is a fragile beauty that makes this album as angular as it is catchy.

"English Cities" uses a ringing, tense riff to punctuate Scott's sparse lyrics. "I wanna I wanna I wanna/ I gotcha big giant flaws," she sings in her soaring drawl, with a diction that hearkens back to Joey Ramone. For its sheer abrasiveness, Introducing is a primal guitar record, but an apt rhythm section is ultimately what propels each track and paces the album. "Mythic" squirms with punk angst above a serpentine, Wire-esque bassline. Elsewhere, the pounding chorus of "Yell in the Air" is accentuated with explosive drumming. Despite its prowess in such areas, Introducing suffers at times from a lack of craft. Songs like "Over There" find themselves in pop limbo, uncertain of whether to cling to a melody or break under their own repetition. And yet these flaws do little to slow the album's raucous surge.

Remaining steadfast to its roots, Slumberland Records has been releasing music by bands like Brilliant Colors for 20 years. From Velocity Girl (the label's founders), to The Aislers Set, to the more recent Cause Co-Motion!, Slumberland has slowly forged ahead, delivering this cloudy-lens pop music with little deviation or interruption. Introducing Brilliant Colors doesn't go so far as to challenge this tradition, but it throws in enough wrenches to make it an exciting addition to the catalog.

- Jeff Roesgen

Ink19

I knew I'd like this just looking at the cover. I wish more bands would put themselves on the covers of their albums. Even if it does look like the Brilliant Colors trio is obscured behind a pane of flour-splattered glass, they still strike that effortless mix of awkward (weird-ass haircuts and shirts) and drop-dead cool (sunglasses on all three). The lyrics are on the inside cover in a hurried scrawl of black-marker inspiration -- the ones with only five lines and a frenzied yelp are often the best.

To describe the brilliantly clattering and un-self-conscious music on Introducing, I have to start by saying something that is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but it's not intended that way; there is nothing on this album that sounds particularly new. You've heard it before, in different configurations. Brilliant Colors succeeds (where lesser bands fail) by dint of conviction, volume, and the serrated wonder in their joyous noise. Again, you know it well -- thousand yard stare, icy female vocals, oddly out of time sense of poise in their execution (almost like Raincoats or Velvets), a frenzied stumble of drums and sheets of spiky, buzzing, wall-of-thrash guitar noise trumping everything else. Stray hints of Vaselines, Beat Happening, Vivian Girls, Marine Girls, Dinosaur Jr., Raincoats, and The Slits slice through your speakers, reminding you of heartbreaks, secret promises, and raucous laughter on some autumn night. The songs rush by in a frenzied trample, less than a half-hour in all, flush with the thrill of being alive and dancing to your own, two-chord, rapturous noise. I want more already.

- Matthew Moyer

Origivation

Brilliant Colors frontwoman Jess Scott likely has a cooler record collection than anyone you know. On their debut LP, the San Francisco trio prove to be well-versed in Rock'N'Roll's most significant sounds and scenes. Opening track "I Searched" embraces both the spunky pop of The Runaways and the haunting simplicity of the Velvets, "Absolutely Anything" juvenilely rocks in the style of any Riot Grrrl, and the gentleness in tone of "Should I Tell You," combined with its abrasive echo form to make a kind of garage twee. With the recent additions of Diane Anastasio and Michelle Hill (former touring guitarist for The Slits), Brilliant Colors nearly-genius debut proves to the world of pop that they are far from Typical Girls.

- Izzy Cihak

MishkaNYC

True, San Francisco's Brilliant Colors may also be a trio of girls making punk-influenced DIY indie pop rock, but they are not a Vivian Girls rip-off band. While the Vivian Girls project a raw, grainy sound that I've always found largely unlistenable, Brilliant Colors are refined, melodic and edgy, influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth, Lush, The Raincoats and most of the greats of Kill Rock Stars' heyday.

Following a stint of 7" releases and finally settling into a lineup, the all-girl band, founded in 2007, has at long last released their debut album, fittingly titled, Introducing. At only 24 minutes long, it would be easy to write off Introducing, but Brilliant Colors do with 24 minutes what it takes most bands 48 to accomplish. Ten, under three minute tracks pack energetic shouts, melodic hooks, and accomplished guitar and drums into an album that's equal parts loud, sweet and razor-sharp.

Jess Scott, Michelle Hill and Diane Anastasio are a lineup that simply work really well together and it's endearing how in sync the band is across every track. "Over There" feels like the trio are playing the same notes in unison as the guitar and drums mimic Scott's vocal cues. All the band members are equally adept on their instruments of choice, but it's Scott's vocal range that stands out across the release. Scott's ability to alternate between the indignant riot grrrl shouts and wails of "Mythic" to the pop rock harmonies of opener "I Searched" and still pull out a syrupy sweet alterego on closer "Should I Tell You" illustrates an amazing range and a natural talent.

Introducing is the rare release that blindsides you, offering depth, maturity, and unbridled talent, when all you were expecting was a couple of fun tracks to tell your friends about.

The Fire Note

The debut album from Slumberland recording artist Brilliant Colors is a record that you really can't go wrong checking out. It clocks in at just under 23 minutes, it has simple rocked out fuzzed up short punchy tracks and it is a bit catchier every time you spin it. The trio is lead by vocalist Jess Scott and her commanding shriek keeps your pace, as the other two members supply an uncomplicated yet completely tight musical border. The title here is perfect as Introducing does its job and is an excellent debut, that sets a promising stage for what Brilliant Colors do next.

- Reece Michael