Brooch - Blood Spitting

"Blood Spitting" is taken from the debut 7" by Brooch, a new project featuring Ben Stidworthy from Ought and Mikkel Holm Silkjær from Yung, out 31st March. Limited to 300 copies, 100 of which are on green vinyl and only available through the Tough Love online shop

"I rode back to Aarhus with Yung after we toured together last winter. Every day, Mikkel and I would write and record one song at their scando-office rehearsal space, and then go out in the evenings. These songs emerged from us without discussion or direction, and I feel they captured an energy that was resonating in black and white. Blood Spitting is a collection of fragments that I collected over the course of a very long year. It’s a historically-situated conversation between a healer and a lover who search for remedies that aren’t real. They are the first lyrics I’ve ever been proud of. " - Ben Stidworthy

Pre-order
7" (green vinyl - 100 copies) - toughloverecords.bigcartel.com/product/t…een-vinyl

Brooch Facebook - www.facebook.com/broochmusic/
Brooch Bandcamp - brooch.bandcamp.com/

Biography:
Brooch is the glimmering spinoff of a tour that Ben Stidworthy and Mikkel Holm Silkjær did together with their bands, Montreal’s Ought and Aarhus’ Yung. Their first offering of two songs are like the people behind them: youthful and yet already wise, cold-hearty and yet with ripe with a primrose melodicism. “Blood Spitting” and “Broken Glass” are an expertly crafted pair of rock songs, but ones that maintain that burgeoning kind of playfulness that comes from a new collaboration.

The tracks were recorded over two days in Aarhus, DK in November 2015. Ben continues, as he does in Ought, to play bass like a craftsman makes a fine chair and expands his palate to not only lush organ playing but also whispery and emotive vocals. Mikkel, Yung’s principal songwriter, continues to show off his multi-instrumentalism as he offers guitar, drums and, as he does in Yung, vocals.

In “Blood Spitting”, Ben shows his poetic heart atop a crisp and revolving drum and guitar melody that recalls the quietest moments of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out-era Yo La Tengo. And yet a tender edginess appears lyrically: “For the blood spitting and vertigo,” he sings “these days are muddled by dust.” It is a striking juxtaposition, the lush organ tones with words such as this. It alone almost conjures the cold room they recorded in: a few beer bottles clattering on the cement while a soft cough, visible breath and a smile break the quiet between takes.

Mikkel answers on his side of the pair with a distinctly piercing and yet lush vocal presence. “Broken Glass” features violin from the duo’s friend Lena Geue which balances the more rugged bass tone and chugging, almost off-kilter rhythm of the thing. “A see-through window is not a rare sight, but a shattered one will leave blood behind,” replies Mikkel beyond his warbly and fierce guitar line.

These are both songwriters who know when to leave space, when to sustain a moment, and yet are unafraid to play ornamentally. It is a rich collaboration, bursting at the edges when you take stock of who these songwriters are, and yet contained here in a small capsule that introduces us to their voices together. It is a bit like a brooch, in that way, something they would both wear in real life. I’d wear this 7” on my jacket. And with songs like this for the kindling of a project, it’s pretty exciting to think about what happens next.

Tim Darcy, Montreal, October 2016