39 Lightyears from Heaven is the debut LP from Brainwasher, released via Mothland. The album delivers a blend of trip-hop, industrial, shoegaze and new wave, pulling influences from David Lynch's surrealist universe, Nick Cave's elegant punk moxie and Portishead's brooding experimentalism...

For a debut LP, Brainwasher get so much spot on. There are so many tracks that are instantly accessible and memorable. It's almost like you've heard them before in a bizarre half-dream. Nowhere is this more evident than in 'Candles', which itself appears dreamlike and hypnotic.

The album's 11 songs (40 min, 44 sec) work well in the way they are ordered, representing an organic morphing of genres and styles. Personal favourite tracks include 'Burning Cars' and 'Candles', which stay with you long after you've finished listening.

As debut albums go, they don't come much more polished than this.

 

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Nick Smithson