“The music – lush electronic textures, delicate piano melodies and driving rhythms – is cinematic in scope, offering Armageddon and salvation in turn. 8/10” – Uncut
“‘Shadow Offering,’ is beautiful and heart wrenching, pulling on listeners’ heartstrings. The album offers a sanctuary by easing anxiety and fueling hope, acting as a sort of security blanket for these unnerving times. 8/10” – Clash Magazine
“a gloriously intricate fourth outing […] Braids have refined themselves, ready to offer mature, emotional soundscapes of understanding. 9/10” – The Line of Best Fit
“Braids are incisive, and conjure up a kind of confiding emotional warmth; Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla’s rich production is the ideal match.”– NME
“…[Shadow Offering] feels like the culmination of what Braids have been building towards over the last 10 years. It’s glimmering and assured, an album that’s constantly refining and one-upping itself. The Canadian band’s songs have always been massive, bursting at the seams with ideas, but they’ve never sounded as good or as crystallized as they do on Shadow Offering.”– Stereogum (50 best albums of 2020 so far)
“Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings with openhearted earnestness.” – The New York Times
“The whole thing builds to a frantic final third in which the chaos and confusion is palpable.” – The Fader (About ‘Snow Angel’)
“a bouncy good time; in the tug-of-war between mind and matter, these pulsing synths are clearly on the side of the body.” – Consequence of Sound (About ‘Young Buck’)
“An undulating piano carries heartfelt sentiments, presented in a voice that stylistically manages to pay tribute to both Joni Mitchell and Alanis Morissette.”– The Globe and Mail (About Eclipse (Ashley)
‘Just Let Me’ and ‘Snow Angel’ part of Under the Radar’s Best Songs of the week
Braids is thrilled to start 2021 with a brand-new ‘Young Buck’ remix from renowned New York-based DJ Python. The lead single from their most recent albumShadow Offeringwas widely acclaimed by fans and media when it was released a year ago. DJ Python’s take on the track is hypnotic, throbbing and intoxicating. Electronic modulations of Raphaelle’s voice project the listener to an out of comfort, new dimension where Braids is suddenly dominating the dancefloor. Amid this year-long pandemic struggle, it is time to reclaim dancing and expressing ourselves.
“Upon receiving DJ Python’s remix of our track Young Buck, my pining for the dance floor kicked in,” explains Braids. “I pulled my car over to an empty parking lot and turned the volume up as far as it could go. Alone beside the concrete barriers of a now desolate shopping mall, I was reminded of bodies beside bodies, of a night that you never want to end, of sweat, of joy. For a moment I was transported from my new and uncomfortable reality: distanced, living through a pandemic, to memories streaming behind my closed eyes, of a life lived prior, and one that will be lived again. This track offers the fuel needed to keep going, the energy needed to stay hopeful. When I close my eyes and dance to it in my living room, I am at the club and the club is with me.”
Python is a renowned DJ from Queens, New York with South American roots and who was raised in Miami. His latest album ‘Mas Amable’ came out last spring to rave reviews. “Music is just moods to me,” Python explains. “When I sit down and make music, I’m feeling something and then I just try to translate it into sounds. It’s like a conversation with the self. I like sounds that are a bit more whispery, or not as aggressively telling you exactly what to think or feel.” (Pitchfork).
Braids most recent album Shadow Offering co-produced by Chris Walla, is out now via Secret City Records / Remote Control. A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heartbreaking honesty and precision, listeners traverse a nuanced and complicated world: one full of beautiful contradictions. Braids in currently in the studio writing new material.