As ANBAD has been on an unexpected hiatus yet again, I may as well just jump in the deep end with this one and say how much I think Butchers & Bakers‘ deliciously-named Brunch is simply the kind of song I love to have fall into my lap every now and then.
Just as laptops now allow anyone to make any noise they want – and so many songs have become swamped with everything – synths are no longer luxury products.
All you need is a bit of pirated software and a $25 USB-keyboard to play any synth sound ever, and just maybe you too could be Vince Clarke, right?!
When every noise is within easy reach, the hard part becomes choosing how to narrow down your selection to not very much and finding something cool to do with it.
Thus, Brunch/Emulator’s blooping synth flourishes are agonisingly simple but hideously effective, perfectly and oddly complimenting Rebecca’s (yes, I read the band info for once) vocals.
There’s nothing really obtuse about this song: it’s just a good song, being good and fun, and odd, and slightly off-kilter enough to grab your attention. This might sound like I’m underplaying the band’s abilities: it’s actually about as high a compliment as you can pay any song.
Moreover, Butchers & Bakers were always likely to emerge on ANBAD: in their photo they pose with a plate of donuts.
The band are from Brooklyn. I daydream about the Peter Pan donut bakery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at least twice a week, and the naive and foolish part of me hopes that those donut pictured above are snatched from those very shelves.
Ah, whimsy.