zenxienz - Brainforest

When BR introduced its readers to zenxienz earlier this year with his debut album Mind Sigh, the Los Angeles-based producer was firmly in the experimental/IDM wheelhouse. His second full-length album Brainforest is much more in the realm of EDM, however, which is a surprising shift from the last album. The 14-track opus still has the experimental sound design and classical composition zenxienz made himself known for in Mind Sigh, but each song has a beat or multiple beats which align with some form of modern EDM. From house to dubstep to trip hop and even trap, xenxienz covers the spread of EDM beat structure in Brainforest.

To get it out of the way now, Brainforest is still far from what anyone would consider a dance or rave album. The tracks contained herein will remind no one of huge festivals or speaker tweekers. That said, there is a growing faction within the EDM community who are making this type of weird, experimental EDM more popular, especially when it comes to trap, halftime and dubstep. The likes of Tsuruda, Shades and Ivy Lab are playing sold out shows with this slow, minimal form of EDM and it’s definitely gaining a following.

Tracks on Brainforest like “Illicit”, “Micronaut” and even “In Descent” seem to be along these experimental lines, folding experimental sound design in with more recognizable trap, halftime or dubstep beats. Of course in the context of zenxienz, things get really experimental really quickly, and he uses more high tones than the average experimental trap artist, but that’s what makes him unique.

The fifth track on the album, “Trapazoid Dream”, is sort of a transition track as it combines a trap beat with one that is more more tribal-sounding house and toggles back and forth between the two along with the now trademark zenxienz jazz fusion-like blend of chaotic synths. Whether he meant to do this or not, “Trapazoid Dream” transitions the Brainforest out of its more bass music-heavy section and into a more house-and-trip hop-forward arena.

The album seems to toggle back and forth between these two styles with tracks like the funky, almost-too-melodic-for-zenxienz house track “Pico” and the jazz-heavy trip hop “Lapse of Bliss”. But behold! There are still more styles in xenxienz’s slightly more structured follow-up to Mind Sigh. “Coiled”, for example, starts out as a techno track with a quite Dadaist sampling of synths, and there’s even a drum and bass-inspired track in the form of “Missing California”.





Brainforest truly has a beat style for every type of EDM fan, as long as those fans also like jazzy, experimental sound design over their favorite beat. It’s a fitting follow-up to Mind Sigh, and will likely gain more interest for zenxienz from the EDM community. Brainforest will release on August 4.


Jul 27 2017