TURFED out of their studio in London’s Elephant and Castle when it was turned into luxury apartments, capital-based fivepiece Breton decamped to Berlin to make their second album, and the forced relocation is evident in their music.
The hip-hop influences of debut Other People’s Problems have gone, replaced by strings, piano, electronics and double-tracked vocals, and War Room Stories – a very European album, not just a London one – suggests it was a wise move.
Where Breton impress is their ability to improvise and intrigue while sticking to trusty song structures, best evidenced on S4 – which reaches its crescendo via a classic Electronic-style synth break – Closed Category and Got Well Soon, while curtain-raiser Envy is steel drum-driven pop with a melancholic edge.
After a solid six-song burst, War Room Stories slithers into unfocused, Foals-lite art-rock towards the end, but as a band still learning their sound and with Roman Rappak’s lyrics provoking more thought than many of his peers can manage, Breton can be forgiven for that. Getting out and seeing a bit more of the world has done them good.
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