I caught wind of this brakence album scrolling through social media, and the only reason I knew brakence was from the one song I knew from him, sunder, which I randomly added to my library a long time ago. It piqued my interest because there were so many people saying how great the album was, and the little snippet I heard was unlike what I expected of him.
I was definitely surprised spinning hypochondriac for the first time, but whether it was a pleasant surprise was very up in the air for a long while. It's quite easy to categorise hypochondriac under glitch pop and hyperpop, and for what it's worth, that's definitely its home territory, but there's a wide array of subtle influences that sets this record apart in a way that intrigues me deeply. Through thirteen songs and almost an hour of runtime, he presents a robust selection of tracks with a diverse range of creative choices that are mostly hits and occasionally a miss.
The record starts out pretty standard in sound for a hyperpop record, but entering the middle few we see some math rock and screamo influences start to seep in. As it's a hyperpop record, it's production heavy by intrinsic nature, but even by hyperpop standards I feel this one goes a bit above and beyond. This record is super dense in production effort and electronic stylings, with a lot of complex and constantly changing soundscapes. It's not neat, but I do believe the intention is to be some degree of chaotic. Layers upon layers of electronics and synthwork, vocal processing and glitchy beats, coupled with surprisingly catchy lines and unorthodox dynamics, hypochondriac is full of interesting moments if you can get past the oddities.
There's a tasteful variety of textures throughout this record that makes it really enjoyable and fresh, and gives listeners much to dive into. I love how he constantly switches between digital electronics and instruments, trying to incorporate a blend of sounds to fit the genre influences. There are plenty of math rock-esque guitar riffs and melodies scattered throughout the record, occasionally the beats get replaced for acoustic drum parts, his clean and harsh vocals will sometimes come in instead of heavily processed vocals. All of this sell the idea of an alt-influenced hyperpop blend, which I feel brakence hit the mark on with this record.
For a self-described glitch pop artist, he's definitely pushing the glitch part to overdrive. Some of the glitch parts are reminiscent of edIT, and his natural voice reminds me of EDEN and Jeremy Zucker as well as some of his electronic production work. I am especially a sucker for how math rock-esque all the guitar parts are, whether it's the riffs under the verses of bugging! or 5g reminiscent of Ichika Nito, or sections like the ending of deepfake that lean closer to the styles of bands like covet and Chon.
After listening to this record for a while, I've grown to appreciate it and like it a bit. It's a very stimulating record, if you're one who likes full and loud soundscapes, complex layers and multitudes of textures, hypochondriac might be your cup of tea. It's definitely not a record for everyone, but anyone who enjoys hyperpop should definitely give this a listen, and if you enjoy math rock, hard rock or metal, chances are, this record might be to your liking as well.
Rating: 7/10