“It’s interesting how music influences, opens up, and empties out the contents your mind – how the imagination kicks in, and bends around your immediate environment, particularly when you allow your mind to wander aimlessly.  I find the best time for me to appreciate music is when walking through the forest with my hound – listening through Spotify’s ‘Discover Weekly’ playlists as I’m weaving through the trees, allowing my subconscious mind to create its own stories from the music and lyrics I’m hearing. 

Starting out with almost hip-hop type percussion, Tom Morello style harmonised guitar drone tones and dirty-fuzz bass notes, my imagination planted me in an apocalyptic survival scenario… perhaps recycling snippets of the Will Smith ‘I Am Legend’ movie, or reacting to Walter Schreifels’ opening lyrics “You say return from where you came, what if there’s nothing left for me now?”. 

The vocals glide in above a clean acoustic rhythm guitar, rustling the leaves on a melancholic breeze, with hints of early Radiohead in both the vocals and electric guitar notes which are introduced a couple of minutes into the track.  “Brushed” served as the soundtrack to my own ‘last man on earth’ adventure and immediately injected itself into the forest fabric… “Something’s wrong, look for symmetry…”, sings Walter, as I’m negotiating the tangle.  When music reaches you in such a way, it’s worth a few more listens.  My pick of the week for that reason… “Brushed” by Quicksand who, as I’ve since discovered, released a new single (Giving The Past Away) at the end of last month!”

– MC, IAMUR

Listen to more from Quicksand on Spotify:

Find more about Quicksand on their website, Instagram, Facebook and all the major music streaming platforms. If you want to be considered for IAMUR’s Pick Of The Week… submit your music for review here.

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