The folks at Castle Face dig a good trance. Hypnosis, mesmerization, and brain trickery are some of our favorite results of deep listening and it is a suggestive, ritualistic and dreamlike vibe that Bronze ooze like pheromones all over their excellent new record. Absolute Compliance (2022) is a truly hypnogogic group of tunes from Bronze on their best and weirdest behavior and it hits all Castle Face's favorite things about them immediately and repeatedly: Insistently strange synth voicings emanating from Miles Friction's mad scientists lab worth of equipment controlled by a homemade-looking oversized knob; Brian Hock’s throbbing, woolly, hall of mirror grooves; and above it all Rob Spector’s thousand-yard croon the vaguely familiar touchstone amongst the Lynchian, mutated surroundings…these are songs of dreams and nightmares, hidden rituals observed, futuristic coliseum entertainments displaced in time, sci-fi jams of an uncertain future. Bronze are one-of-a kind great and if you’re unfamiliar you should go find their other records (including their great live record for Castle Face) and get caught up. They are real-deal weirdo kings of San Francisco and their spell is not easily dissipated once cast.
