Album Stream: Rob Bravery – ‘Esque’

Something soulful but definitively modern...

Debut albums don't just fall out of the sky – artists spend their entire lives building towards them.

So when Rob Bravery began piecing together 'Esque', he knew he had time to play with. Working in an un-hurried fashion, the songwriter was able to truly bring his art to the fore, moving between soulful territories and something rather more electronic.

Flitting between classic songwriting and working in a definitively modern vein, the results contain some blissful, time-lapse electronics, but also some folk hues.

'Esque' is out now, and it's an intriguing beast. Streaming on Clash, Rob Bravery introduces the record thus:

I started working on demos for 'Esque' in 2013..

I wanted to make a record that explored a variety of writing styles, hence the flitting back and forth between dark, light, electro ambience and acoustic stuff. Each song felt like a bit of a study within itself. Hopefully that comes accross, rather than it sounding unfocussed.

The demos were picked up by Danish production trio 'The Suppliers' who were keen to start production in early 2014.

Despite being musically and sonically diverse the lyrical themes are fairly consistent. There's a feeling of disillusionment in a few of the songs which is probably reflective of my state of mind at the time. Perhaps not feeling entirely content with my existence as a whole (shall we say), coupled with London-life rubbing me up the wrong way every now and again.

The most prominent theme though, is a kind of cathartic exploration of my youth.. I found myself writing lots about growing up just outside Bristol, small town idiosyncrasies, and going off the rails a bit. I'm not entirely sure what drove me to do so. Those themes just seemed to sit well with some of the moody trip-hop textures I'd been exploring.

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Tune in below.

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