Nashville-by-way-of-Phoenix electronic duo brotherun — consisting of siblings Nick and Trevor Tillery — Â craft swatches of bright, vibrant synth-led beats, piled on top of silvery melodies and the occasion squeal of electric guitar. Â But the path to brotherun wasn’t quick and took a bit of effort on their part — in fact, the two didn’t even begin to work together until they lived some 1,600 miles apart. Â Trevor worked on his songwriting while at a college in Seattle, and Nick taught himself the drums while playing in a thrash band in Phoenix. Â It’s at this point that they began to form the basis of what would come to be known as brotherun. Â Though in the meantime, Trevor also moved to Phoenix and was inducted into a local rock band which actually found a modicum of success before unfortunately fizzling out. Â With distance no longer an issue, the brothers began recording and reworking the ideas and sounds that they had envisioned for their band. Â They’ve been favorable compared to bands like Washed Out and Youth Lagoon, and with the release of their self-titled debut EP in August, the band has made those comparisons quite explicit.
They recently let producer N8 take a crack at reworking the song “Maze” from their debut, and while the song isn’t completely deconstructed, it certainly has a different feel to it. Â Replacing one thudding beat for another, and for one slightly more menacing, N8 has injected a visceral thrill into the electronic theatrics of the song. Â Everything seems just that much more shrouded in mystery,while each layer of instrumentation seems on the verge of running off the tracks. Â Working with the band’s original concept for the song — they envisioned it describing how people often trap themselves in a cyclical series of events and who then have a difficult time extricating themselves — he grafts circling synths and hazy beats onto the track’s skeleton and watches as it contorts and shudders under the weight. Â But it does stand on its own and is a wonder of reimagined influences and electronic pomp.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere N8’s remix of brotherun’s “Maze.”
