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Experimental musician Les Brown out with newest release, ‘The Next One’

By Kath Galasso on September 24, 2024

Experimental music can take an endless number of forms, and in his recent releases, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Les Brown appears to want to explore as many of them as possible, along with making up new combinations of his own. Influenced by the world’s best-known musical envelope pushers such as Tangerine Dream, King Crimson and Brian Eno, Brown’s Second Full-length album full of musical twists and turns out June 28. Aptly named The Next One (since the first one was entitled The First One), the forthcoming album sees Brown continuing his journey of sound discovery and he invites his listeners to open their minds and walk the path with them. Largely self-taught, the production levels Brown produces are quite high quality and his composition borders on classical, which means he must have researched quite a bit to put these albums together. Listening to his earlier singles, “Meat Grinder Variations No. 1” and “Approaching Equinox,” it’s clear that Brown has that sound scientist (or mad scientist) spark and curiosity that has made so many of the greats in progressive and experimental music.

My albums are meant to be like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: “You never know what you’re going to hear.” If one tune isn’t your favorite flavor, try a different one. I blend music genres, geographic regions, languages, instruments to make unique music with emotion and feeling. Some songs invoke fun or playfulness, while other songs are closer to rock or jazz, and others are entrancing psychedelia, an auditory space to explore or be enveloped within.

That’s certainly the case with The Next One, which, in its four preview tracks, covers everything from funk to new wave to new age to true ambient music. The box of chocolates is on full display and no matter what fans choose, the selection will be high quality and interesting, with different textures and flavours throughout each piece.

I write music to capture the sound and feeling of being in a new and unfamiliar, or perhaps mysterious, but always unthreatening place. I try to invoke feelings of being in a new space, real or imagined, for the listener to think “That’s interesting!” or “I hadn’t thought of that before. Cool!” I want the listener to enjoy experiencing music that is new and interesting, with no pretense or lessons; just the listener observing and coming along for the ride.

A fan just as much as an artist, Les Brown invites his audience to tinker with him and find the fun and experimentation in sound. The Next One is the next one in a trilogy of albums, so Brown is still just getting warmed up!

Stream “The Next One” on Spotify.

Musician Names/Instruments: Les Brown – Guitars, bass guitar, drums, synthesizers, samplers, effects
Producer Name(s): Les Brown

Tracklist:

Picycle
Jungle Night
Happy Malfunction
Martini
Bhajan
Brain Goes For Walk
Hunting Creek Road
Daisy In The Wind
Porro de Circo
Yeehaw!
One More Thing

Websites:
Official Website: https://lesbrown.rocks
Spotify: https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/1uqJKdMhtXiBUw3nZ8f1uj/profile/overview
Bandcamp: https://lesbrown.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/les-brown-540983389/sets/the-next-one/s-gUWKfOET6Ox?si=78a0a782319f4b2384be03ddbc13cdc5

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFPdVTAvYXxs4Was-F8EfoQ

Artist Biography:

Multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Les Brown offers a “musical box of chocolates”: you never know what you’re going to hear. Primarily a self-taught musician, Les has been infatuated by the many different music genres he has listened to and collected over decades. And He shows it in his unique musical style and musicianship: Les performs on all instruments on his recordings, while highlighting his proficiency and unique sound on guitars and keys. Les released his first singles, Approaching Equinox and Meat Grinder Variations No. 1 in 2021. His first full-length album, The First One, was released in 2022, and contains a blend of jazz rock, jam rock, electronica, semi-ambient music, and the song “Amalgam,” Les’s answer to “Revolution 9” by The Beatles. His latest album, The Next One, released in 2024, reveals influences of Brian Eno, King Crimson, John Zorn, Susumu Yokota, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and even a touch of guitar rock ala AC/DC. From ambient spaces to hard rock, casual toe tappers to psychedelic electronica, Les Brown offers us a selection from his “musical box of chocolates.” You will want to try the whole box!

Leslie “Les” Brown was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania and graduated from high school in Fairview, Pennsylvania. Les took piano lessons in grade school and is self-taught on guitars, drums, synthesizers, and music production. While attending Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, Les performed on vocals, guitars and keyboards in several rock and blues bands in Erie, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Les met his wife, Kate, in Edinoro and they both graduated with M.S. degrees in Geology from The University of South Carolina Columbia in Columbia, South Carolina. After graduation they moved to Colorado to live and work, and Les created Uncle Bob, a rock and jam band power trio based in Denver, Colorado. After fronting Uncle Bob on voice and guitar, Les moved on to play drums in the rock/jam band Natchez Bound based in Evergreen, Colorado. In 2016, Les and Kate returned to Edinboro, Pennsylvania to be closer to family and friends in the serenity of rural western Pennsylvania. Since returning to Pennsylvania, Les has perfomed on lead guitar in a jazz trio and produced 2 singles and 2 full-length albums of his own music. Les is a very active musician, working on new music almost every day. Les currently lives, works, plays and produces music in Edinboro, Pennsylvania with his wife Kate, and at least 2 dogs and 2 cats.