Turn Up the Brilliance is not what I’ve come to expect from the Champaign-Urbana punk scene. Recorded in a real studio as opposed to a basement four-track, melodic guitar leads where I would expect a thrash break, and precise where sloppy should go. But the reason I’m so enthralled with this album isn’t that I have something against sloppy lo-fi — I actually really like it. No, it’s that Turn Up the Brilliance is an uncommonly mature and engaging album. It hearkens back to mid-90s hardcore bands like NOFX and AFI, with a little of Smoking Popes’ melodic sense thrown in for good measure.
And don’t even get me started on the hooks, which are present in spades, especially on “Heart Scars.” These guys have a knack for melodic lines on par with Bad Religion, and they sure as hell know how to play them. The musicianship is as tight as you’d expect from a hardcore band.
It’s not that they’ve swapped the primal rush that has long been central to punk for canned energy — most of the album’s ten tracks would feel right at home played during a Carbomb Lottery show — but that they’ve taken that energy, refined it, polished it up and pulled it to the forefront, resulting in one of the most vital and fresh records I’ve ever heard from a local group. I could keep trying to put it into words, but the guitar solo that closes out the album’s final (and standout) track, “We Are The Young” says it all. Like the rest of the album, it’s perfectly controlled chaos, tight but loose, nearly flying off the edge of order but landing right back on the beat.
Turn Up the Brilliance is out this Saturday, May 15th, and can be purchased/streamed right now on Bandcamp. Alternately, pick up a copy at the CD release show at Bunny Ranch.