A Producer Perspective: Brakence – Hypochondriac

This is the first of a series called the Producer Perspective. This is a breakdown of self-produced artists

whose work deserves a deeper dive. As someone who has been producing music for over five years, I want to talk about not just how good the music sounds, but why it sounds the way it does.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a self-produced artist is someone who makes most, if not all, aspects of their music independently. This includes recording, engineering, mixing, arranging and anything else that would typically be contributed to a team. Since the art is made with complete control by the artist, it offers a direct view into their creative vision. It also means they are stupid talented.

To start the series strong, this article focuses on Brackence and his latest album, Hypochondriac. This is a perfect example of self-produced talent and a 10/10 album. This album feels less like a typical listening experience and more like walking through an auditory abstract art gallery. It’s a sound that is made purely from controlling chaos.

What gives this album its unique glitchy sound and overarching theme is Brakence’s use of granular distortion. This effect cuts melodies into hundreds of tiny pieces that are only milliseconds long called grains. These grains are all rearranged and distorted differently, shattering the melody into an abstract texture. The use of granular distortion in this album makes it sound sporadic but intentional.

That same artistic vision is also seen in his vocal effects. Brakence uses an intense compressor on his voice that is so heavy, it breaks. A compressor is an effect that simply makes the quiet parts of a sound louder and the loud parts quieter, but Brakence doesn’t use this effect conventionally. When he breathes, the compression cuts the vocal in and out, and his lyrics snap into silence immediately. This makes his voice sound fractured and broken, but the clarity of the vocal is not lost. While this fragmented distortion fills the in-betweens of his vocals, the phrase itself isn’t interrupted and stays human. This broken compression is only taken away in parts of the album that are more emotional. It makes listeners pay attention when there are less effects on vocals because it feels more personal and up close. The raw performance feels like a point of vulnerability.

This analysis will now focus on tracks that deserve to be highlighted the most, by examining the structure, genre influences, important lyrics and notable production details. Given the album’s chaotic and experimental nature, the following songs are ordered from most digestible to least. This gives a more gradual introduction for a wider range of listeners. The last thing a listener should do is overlook the album because of an early conclusion. It is impossible to explain every song’s elements, simply because there are too many. Each song is its own journey, it changes and blossoms in its duration. Listeners are encouraged to experience the album in full, in one sitting, with headphones.

1. Hypochondriac

Yes, the outro of the entire album. This is the most structurally simple song on the album. It contains only a piano track paired with Brackence’s vocal performance. This is also one of the few songs where his voice doesn’t have broken compression. The vocal feels more vulnerable because of it. This makes the performance more emotional and raw because his voice is unfiltered by effects.

2. CBD

“CBD” has very heavy pop influences and features a catchy hook. This is also one of the few songs in the album that features an acoustic bassline common in pop music. In the hook, the drums follow this acoustic theme and give the song a familiarity that a wide range of listeners can relate to. Overall, the song is catchy and fun, but not a full representation of the rest of the project.

3. Introvert

This is by far one of my favorites in the album. This is a song that starts more simply and calmly, presented as a ballad with just vocals and a guitar, but builds quickly halfway through. Most of the instruments in the beginning carry the familiar organic sound I mentioned in “CBD”, but the tone shifts midway. Its a good introduction for new listeners because the song starts with a simple structure but later transitions into the project’s signature experimental sound.

A notable element would be the writing, this is a song about a man falling in love with another man but being unable to tell him because he’s already in love with a woman. The writer feels like there’s an expectation he can never quite live up to and there’s an aching admission he can never tell him. This song also talks about struggles with mental health, specifically dissociation. Dissociation is a condition where individuals feel like they are watching their life take place in front of them rather than living it. It can feel like the world around them doesn’t look real, but they can’t quite figure out why. This would play into the theme of the album, hypochondria. Feeling like something is wrong medically without fully understanding why.

4. Venus Fly Trap

This is a very upbeat song with a pop-influenced drum pattern. It carries the familiar acoustic bassline with drums that match. This acoustic rhythm is layered with synths and digital elements that contrast the organic nature of the drums and the bass. My favorite part of this song though is the outro where his voice is pushed more to the foreground and is layered with a piano and more granular instruments.

5. Deepfake

This is the most popular song on the album and is the best example of one of the project’s major genre influences which is midwest emo. This influence is mainly seen in the way the guitars are played throughout the album, the guitars are sporadic, quick and feel like you’re listening to a whole constellation of notes. This is best heard in the guitar solo toward the outro of the song. This guitar solo is also the best heard in the entire project, it’s soloed and uninterrupted with vocals. This song’s beginning acts as a break to all the chaos you have heard in the album so far and brings you back to earth. When the track builds, we hear a sound that is mostly heard within dubstep genres. This sound is called a “growl”  bass and its function in this song is similar to that of a distorted electric guitar and it reintroduces the abstract elements that we’ve now become familiar with.

6. Teeth

Personally, the album really starts at the track teeth, you can feel an emotional shift. The tracks before teeth were all released before the full project during the albums rollout. It’s like the beginning of the album was meant to be for the fans while the rest of the album is more deep and part of the creative vision. You can even hear it in his writing, if you pay attention to the lyrics he mentions his problems with things like disassociation, drugs, love, and the main point of course, him feeling like something is wrong with him, him being a hypochondriac.

7. 5g

This song is a fan favorite, it uses a drill-influenced drum pattern but is blended with the project’s major influence of midwest emo. This song’s vocals predominantly use an effect called formant shifting. This effect alters the characteristics of someone’s voice to make the voice, in this case, sound higher pitched without actually changing the pitch of the recording. I think the lyrics of this song are interesting and stand out. It covers topics such as climate change, phone addiction and companies selling our information and using it “as a resource.”

Even though I have only covered seven of the songs within the albums duration, all of the songs within the album deserve attention, my mentions are only specific highlights I wanted to talk about and to act as a guide for skeptical people who might be less open to experimental music. Each song deserves attention, each song is a journey between genres and styles, each song gives you a new world to step into. Brakence’s vocal delivery keeps you on the right path while transitioning between the tracks. His production seamlessly transitions between many genres in a way that feels sporadic but all in place.

This album is chaotic and not for everyone, but the talent behind it cannot be ignored by any listener. At the very least, it is unlike anything anybody has ever heard.