Having added such a forcefully new dimension to proceedings here in Ireland, it’s hard to believe that I Am Brazil is TRM’s first full-length album proper.
On their previous releases, Thirtysixstrings and Cut Your Heart Off From Your Head, the Redneck Manifesto heralded the promise of great things to come, and fortunately that potential has now been gloriously fulfilled. Their tight sound has become impressively expansive, melding pockets of apocalyptic noise with space-age ambient licks. Also on record for the first time is newcomer Neil O’Connor who, as an alumnus of The Connect Four Orchestra and Somadrome, has somehow brought an even more wonderfully uncompromising quality to the band’s overall sensibility.
Drawing you into the lull of their Stereolab-tinged drone, they pull the rug out from under you with a deft, unexpected change in temp/temper. ‘Hibernation Statement’ with its cathartic rhythm, is hypnotically beautiful, yet immediately one lurches into the seething violence of ‘Break Your Fingers Laughing’. The stirring, sometimes dramatic instrumental narrative of I Am Brazil, as played out with little more than five instruments, manages to evoke, inspire and excite more than most albums gilded with reams of verse.
For those of you who figured it impossible to find references to Fugazi, Superchunk and Sonic Youth in one band, TRM prove that anything is possible. Look no further than I Am Brazil for confirmation.

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