Show me to the club
Oakland-based musical duo, Brijean, shuffle their way back into the dance scene on their latest EP, Angelo. Brijean Murphy and producer Doug Stuart showcase how great of a duo these two can be when crafting tight-knit EP, getting straight to the point. Angelo is a project that doesn’t reshape a club sound, its enjoyability can be found in a leisurely listen that persuades those who listen to simply groove. Murphy’s swaying vocals and percussion throughout, along with a highlight of DJ talent, make for a dreamy club mix that calms as much as a wind chime or pounds like a drum. Off its opening interlude “Which Way To The Club?” audiences walk with Brijean into the spotlight and onto the dance floor; the next eight tracks feel like a complete night out on the town.
“Take A Trip” is a looping groove saturated in funk electronic. The chime keyboard and clap samples feel like a modern disco and push the track into a callback to older dance tunes. The multitude of samples, mixings, and hidden sounds feel like an eye spy game if you pay enough attention to them. Both “Take A Trip” and “Shy Guy” lure the unsuspected to shake a shoulder, or at least prove the possibility of moving a little. “Shy Guy” incorporates laser flickers and a shaker backbeat that melt away problems when layered with Murphy’s vocals and dream lyrics. The whole track feels like someone wagging their finger at you or grabbing your hand and tugging you to a neon-saturated dance floor.
“Angelo” and “Ooo La La” creates a comfortable DJ lounge set, that slows things down with its distortion and lower bass frequencies. The reverbs shift in Murphy’s pitch puts the track on a reverse record spin and pulls back on its tempo. “Angelo” features lengthy synths and tropical percussion and bass that put on a Miami Vice pair of sunglasses. While “Colors” serves as an electronic interlude, helping breach the party to lounge vibes, it doesn’t feel necessary and could have easily been put at the end of the EP. Considering how short Angelo already is, “Colors” could have been slapped at the end of any of the previous songs as an existing sound rather than an interlude.
The colorful wind chimes present in “Colors” transition into the soft Latin tones of “Where Do We Go?” “Where Do We Go?” gets a little too lost in its dream state for its own good. Its slow, relaxing beat sways away from the club mixes and stands by itself as a heavily lounge sound. Rather than emphasizing the electronic relaxation present in the latter portion of Angelo, it could have picked up the pacing and reentered the dance mix.
Closing track “Caldwell’s Way” pulls back the more heavily-produced electronic sounds to highlight the jazzy tones of Murphy’s voice. “Caldwell’s Way” demonstrates Brijean’s potential to cross into a more lyrical heavy sound, as Murphy can easily carry a track with her calming vocal tones. “Nostalgia,” the final song, serves no real purpose as it doesn’t wrap up the entirety of the album or introduce anything interesting. “Nostalgia,” along with other interludes, could have been replaced or expanded upon, although this one doesn’t feel entirely out of place.
Brijean proves to be a strong duo that builds around the vocal strengths of Murphy’s voice and simultaneously crafts a charming production to fill the holes. Brijean can shift into multiple genres and sounds, whether they embrace a more dance-electronic, club, lounge, or jazz sound will depend on their future catalog. For now, Angelo hits all the right grooves to develop a smooth experience.
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