BRIAN! is not your average three-piece – –guitar, drums, and bassoon. Yes, bassoon. But there it is, and the (mostly) instrumental trio from Ithaca, NY have come up with another work, The Cataclysmic Engine, which rather challenges on a number of levels. 

The song structures are clearly the result of learned musicians (they feel too intentional to be otherwise), though the results sound quite similar to earlier instrumental noise groups from the 90s, like Battles, Don Caballero, and Mr. Bungle, less the metal tinges of those predecessors. I doubt that BRIAN! wants to sound like these pre-internet misfits, but they do, nonetheless. The bassoon bleats like a free jazz-inspired freakout, and the guitars are plucked like a percussive instrument – angular and rarely in sync with the others – and the drums, well, they're doing their own thing, too. Chance, the aleatory, the haphazard, they are all pretty well-worn modes of their own by now, and it's hard to hear what's entirely new about what BRIAN! is doing with their unique constellation of instrumental voicings. It's not math rock, and it's not exactly free improvisation, either. I don't mean to play genre police here, but some semblance of a boundary is always helpful, even if only to serve straw-man duty, a point of orientation from which to measure one's distance.

There's some pretty off-putting singing beginning with "Smol", which ends up being croony and a bit jarring when paired with the frenetic instrumental language. Occasionally, things start to groove out, and the reach for prog, Krautrock jams is appealing, but I could never quite get into it. My guess is that it's my limitation as a listener, but the soundscape feels irritatingly deliberate, like the idea of a particular piece or part of a piece was planned ahead of time, negating the potential for genuine surprise. This is not an appeal for purely organic composition, though it might sound like it. Structure can take place without guidance, or in spite of guidance, but what The Cataclysmic Engine lacks is the ability to seduce, which is kind of a requirement for continued listening, I think.

In general, I am sure those bassoon aficionados (should they exist) will be impressed with the unfamiliar uses of the instrument. For those, on the other hand, who are tired of being challenged to listen but like freeform music, the effort may not equal the reward.