Brookville

Wonderfully Nothing (Unfiltered)

Comments (0) By Lily Moayeri Thursday, Aug 21 2003

Brookville is the latest project from multi-instrumentalist Andy Chase, best-known for his work with NYC pop band Ivy. It's also the first release for Chase's newly established Unfiltered Records. Although Brookville's debut album, Wonderfully Nothing, is Chase's brainchild, there are numerous collaborators. Among these are Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, Autour de Lucie's Jean-Pierre Ensuque, They Might Be Giants' Danny Wienkauf, and Gigolo Aunts' Jon Skibic.

Wonderfully Nothing has that wonderful quality of being able to exist in the background and enhance its surroundings without imposing. Built around layers of atmospherics, the musical portion of Wonderfully Nothing is almost ambient dance in nature but manages to bypass that style's mind-numbing soundscape quality. Instead, it creates an open breathable space for Chase's caressing vocals to slide over, almost disappearing into the gentle compositions. Partially instrumental and partially vocalized, the switches from one to the other are well-positioned, creating an easy pace. On tracks such as the Tears for Fears-ish "Tomorrow Is Gone" Chase vocoders his voice to the accompaniment of lounge-centric horns.On "Sweet Sensation," he channels Burt Bacharach at his hotel-lobby pop best. Definitely romantic, Chase's whispers are lazily sensual, the ever-present horns serving to augment the seductive mood. And for those of you missing your Ivy, all the band's previous albums will be released by Unfiltered this fall.