Album Review” Critical Mass by Beat Rhythm Fashion

​I went to my first listening party a few weeks ago, but I arrived fashionably late. As such, I only caught the tail end of the first airing of Beat Rhythm Fashion’s ‘Critical Mass’. What I did manage to hear at the time sounded great, however. And after slipping out of the party unnoticed, without the need for any awkward goodbyes, I explored the rest of the album as soon as I could.

Like my tardiness at the listening party, this review is also overdue. A lot has happened in the intervening there weeks; The album made a brief appearance at number five in the charts of albums by New Zealand artists, and cracked the top 40 in the overall album charts! Is that enough for you to go and check it out already?
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It has been five years since the release of Beat Rhythm Fashion’s comeback Tenterhook album, and a lot has happened in the world between those times. While the pandemic affected us all, it affected us all differently, and we all looked at the happenings though our own lenses that have been crafted by our past experiences and cultural upbringings. Through a lot of this album, BRF main-man Nino Birch pours his experiences and thoughts into this album.

This is an album full of crafted and thoughtful lyrics. The press release came with a detailed explanation of every song: there is a lot of rumination on the personal effects of the pandemic on Nino’s life, on relationships ranging from the personal to international political, and on conflicting worldviews. Not wanting to sound like a school report here, but Nino is clearly a deep, contemplative and reflective thinker, who is capable of looking both inward and outward.

Some songs to give you a taster of the album? If you were a fan of the ‘80s BRF singles, especially, start with ‘No Wonder’ – the guitars here are as close to classic BRF as you can get – and the magnificent ‘Fall & Rise Again’. 

​Ian Duggan