Brazzaville
Musty noir Tropicalia with mysterious rhythms and shadings, like a humid back alley café in some faraway land
The hazy days of late summer will always be linked to the sound of Brazzaville in my mind. They’re one of those bands that’s a long-time favorite that I don’t really listen to much anymore, but… the weather reminded me, so I decided I should post something about them before it was too late in the season to get a fully-immersive introduction.
The band creates a musty noir Tropicalia with mysterious rhythms and shadings, like a humid back alley cafe in some faraway land where the ceiling fan moves too slowly, perspiration drips down the walls and one false move can be your last
-Erik Himmelsbach, LA Weekly
Brazzaville's sound is as much a product of saxophonist David Brown's world travels as it is the coffeehouse scene of his hometown Los Angeles. Brown was a teenage runaway heroin addict who cleaned up and found a new lease on life traveling the world on the cheap. Eventually he returned to California where he studied saxophone at L.A. City College. This is where he first met Beck and was introduced to a community of artists around the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area of L.A.
This relationship is what led to Brown playing on one of Beck's biggest hits, “Where It's At", as well as being the saxophonist for that album's supporting tour. He would return to play on 3 tracks for Beck’s 1999 album Midnite Vultures. 1
During the world tour supporting Odelay in 1997, and with heavy influence from Brazilian guitarist Jorge Ben's work, Brown taught himself guitar. When he returned to Los Angeles in 1998 he put together a lineup of musicians to record Brazzaville's debut "Brazzaville 2002".
Various lineups of the band were used to produce the follow-up album "Somnambulista" in 2000 and then "Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks" in 2002. By 2003 David had sold all his possessions and moved to Barcelona, Spain to reconfigure once again.
He spent nearly a decade recording albums and touring Europe, Asia, and Russia with a new “European” Brazzaville before returning to do an extremely limited tour of the US in 2010 and has never played here since.
While David/Brazzaville has put out music as recently as 2020, I kinda feel like the best material was peppered throughout the releases from 1998-2011, so that's what I'm going to be focused on — starting with a song found only on the album that introduced me to Brazzaville, "Welcome to..." — a compilation put out in 2004 on Trey Spruance's2 label, Mimicry Records.
Christmas in E.C. (East Cirebon)* - Welcome to..., 2004
“It’s a tragic love song about a young couple who are backpacking around the world together, living a carefree life of sex, drugs and warm climates until the girl discovers heroin. I hope people don’t get bored of me writing stories like these. I guess I write them because I was a big fan of heroin when I was a kid. It killed several of my best friends and almost killed me. It’s a vicious lover! I don’t recommend it, but I still like to write stories about it sometimes.”
*not included on the Spotify playlist
Voce - Brazzaville 2002, 1998
Foreign Disaster Days - Somnambulista, 2000
Lazy, Flawed and Hopeless - Somnambulista, 2000
3rd and Broadway - Somnambulista, 2000
Jane - Somnambulista, 2000
Motel Room - Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks, 2002
Xanax and 3 Hours of TV - Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks, 2002
Genoa - Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks, 2002
Rainy Night - Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks, 2002
“When I formed my band here in Europe, I didn’t want to try to imitate the other band [the original Brazzaville] necessarily. I wanted to try and form a new band here and see what kind of personality it has. It’s a five-piece band instead of a six-piece band, and it doesn’t have horns, it’s more… you know, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and me, another guitar and vocals. I think it seems a little more like a band and less than like a collection of musicians.”
Hastings Street - Hastings Street, 2004
Night Train to Moscow - Hastings Street, 2004
Dark Eyes - Hastings Street, 2004
Bosphorus - East L.A. Breeze, 2006
Star Called Sun* - East L.A. Breeze, 2006
*Often claimed to be a “cover” of Zvezda po imeni Solntse by Soviet rock band Kino, but it’s really only borrowing the melody. The lyrics don’t seem to be an interpretation of the original lyrics in any way, but their own thing altogether.
Peach Tree - East L.A. Breeze, 2006
Sometimes the lonely days turn into the lonely decades…
Leo - 21st Century Girl, 2008
Baltic Sea - 21st Century Girl, 2008
This song kinda reminds me of “Un jour comme un autre” by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. I feel like David was probably influenced by Serge and Brigitte in general, but these two songs always remind me of each other.
Hoover Street - 21st Century Girl, 2008
Moonage Daydream* - Jetlag Poetry, 2011
*Cover of David Bowie's Moonage Daydream from his 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”
Rather Stay Home - Jetlag Poetry, 2011
Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr Bungle