Their Take / Our Take 006
Big Fundamental
“Hyperbeam”
Release Date: 07/27/2021
Their Take
HYPERBEAM scans as a cheeky reference, but I love the imagery. The idea is to capture the feeling behind the constant bombardment of information, ideas, lies, dopamine hits, and disassociated bits. That pulsing current of all things smashing against us at all times, being beamed into our heads. The songs progress from sifting through the onslaught to finding solace to finding ways to do good.
Musically, we play what Jono calls the “big piano.” He’s the left hand, I’m the right, and Gabe’s punching up the holes through the middle. Big bands sound big by giving the impression of innumerable members, [while] trios sound big by giving the impression of a single, multi-armed behemoth of rock & roll. When you do it right it sounds like a boulder rolling down the hill at impossible speed. Conjure chaos, make it tuneful. Summon something gnarly, make it beautiful.”
Our Take
Big Fundamental is a band of tightrope walkers, three musicians who have found a tricky yet confident balance between beauty and calamity. The band’s new album, HYPERBEAM, doesn’t so much as accept this tension but rather embraces it and dials it up. For ten tracks, Big Fundamental steers the listener through a symphony of noise, elevating heart rates and getting adrenaline pumping.
HYPERBEAM is an experiment in complete sensory overload, accomplishing the band’s goal of capturing an unnerving feeling of constant bombardment. But where the album truly succeeds is that it’s not merely about the bombardment itself. It’s not merely an onslaught of loud noise. And it’s not about defeat in the face of it all. Rather, HYPERBEAM finds the band looking chaos straight in the face and making the decision to boldly dive straight in and grapple with it, tame it, and craft something better out of it.
At its core, HYPERBEAM seems to be about about finding and embracing our own places in the madness of the age. Big Fundamental has found theirs, and we’re all the better for it.
“Well I may not be that guiding light / But I’ll be that little molecule / Doing my part / To set afire / The radiance we use.” – Big Fundamental’s “Tiny Molecule”
