Launched from Huntington Beach, California is multi-talented musician Brian Kassan, the person behind Bloomfield Machine. Like the sounds he presently produces under the Bloomfield Machine alias, Kassan’s path through the music industry is multifaceted and diversified. Prior to venturing into soloism, Kassan was a mainstay of several popular bands, such as The Wondermints, Chewy Marble, and the Tikiyaki Orchestra/Tikiyaki -5.
With all these bands, he had quite a wide-ranging exposure to musical influences from all the different genres and styles and was able to absorb a lot of musical learning. 2017 saw Bloomfield Machine become the end product of Kassan’s years of experience and varied sources of influence. Sound by the Beatles in their melodiousness, complex soundscapes from Radiohead, Boards of Canada electronic environments, and reflective lyrics of Elliott Smith-these are just few of the decades and genres that have influenced the sound of their music. The Bloomfield Machine is defined by a unique sound combining artistic noise, texture, and catchy melancholy melodies woven together from each of these.
Kassan’s methodical approach to creating music is what separates Bloomfield Machine. Each track is an ornamented work made in his Huntington Beach residence. It covers every facet of Kassan’s work-from deftly applying loops and finger drums and diverse other instruments to layers of complex sound. It is a testimony to his talent and creativity that he can deftly through these components weave them into coherent, yet emotionally relevation involvements.
It’s quite hard to not go touring at this time. When emerging with the volume of music that pours forth in the digital age, Bloomfield Machine has certainly carved out a little niche for itself among the indie and electronic music lovers. More than simply listening, Kassan’s music becomes the experience-designed to elicit sensations, trek through an imaginative journey, and narrate tales without words. Seven albums released within seven years have shown Kassan not only maturing as an artist but also having a consistent personal commitment to redefining what music can be.
The latest from Bloomfield Machine is “Suiteness,” released August 16, 2024. It is a wicked piece of music. Right from the first note, this album sweeps you away into long, complex melodies and nuanced rhythms, all beautifully wreathed in intensely emotive soundscapes. Each of the 16 songs on “Suiteness” is a journey unto itself with its own distinct blend of indie rock and electronic sensibilities. Irrespective of how great a listener you are, this record will get into your senses and compel you to hear more from Bloomfield Machine. Not just album: “Suiteness” is an Exploratory Sound, an Apparition of the Creative Vision of Kassan, and a Coincidental Evidence of the Emotive as Well as Inspirational Power of the Music.
Suiteness Album Track List:
Euphoric Recall:
“Euphoric Recall,” the first song on Bloomfield Machine’s “Suiteness” album, transported listeners to a colorful realm where each sound has been painstakingly created to astonish and delight. My attention was drawn to the track’s infectious and steady beat right away, which combined lively guitar strings with delicate piano melodies that sounded both familiar and pleasantly unfamiliar. The midtempo groove had an alluring and cheerful regularity that drew me in with its warmth. It was contagious. It sounds like Bloomfield Machine’s creator, Brian Kassan, has captured happiness in a musical form, producing a calming yet invigorating composition.
The subtle interplay between the bass and guitar fascinated me as the tune went on. While the piano and guitar strings swirled over the smooth, deep basslines and funky drum beats, a delicate yet dynamic atmosphere was created. The sounds flowed naturally at first, but each change was deliberate and gave the piece more depth. The way basic sounds were blended to produce an enticing rhythm that was both steady and vibrant is what caught my attention about “Euphoric Recall”—the meticulous attention to detail. Every sound Kassan created seemed to pulse with a bright vitality, and I couldn’t help but be captivated into that realm.
The true brilliance of “Euphoric Recall” is its capacity to evoke euphoria without overpowering the listener. I thought the song had a really nice balance—it’s lively without being overbearing, a little exuberant without ever being hectic. The sound is so well balanced that it feels like a perfect introduction to the album, setting the tone for what’s to come. It’s a track that not only welcomes you into the world of “Suiteness” but also leaves you eager to explore the sonic wonders that Bloomfield Machine has to offer in the rest of the album.
The Normal Amount Of Pain:
“Normal Amount of Pain” is a beautiful endearing and moving-track from Bloomfield Machine’s acclaimed album “Suiteness.” The chorus of this song easily leads into and captivates an audience through its haunting electronic landscape. Indeed, one can be drawn into the complex atmosphere created by this melancholy, protracted melody that instantly sets a very dark mood. Actually, it’s as if the sound is initially trying to get one’s perspective on what suffering really is through some sort of wrestling with it. I found that fine line disturbed-not quite frightened, but very terrified-of sweetly introducing the percussion with an overall touch from that floor-stirring bass to create something very eerie, yet quite comfortable sound. This feeling was intensified by the weaving electronic-synth throughout the piece: It created an auditory environment that felt human and machine simultaneously.
Track opens at about 28 seconds with something a little deeper, more profound evolving towards. It kicks into a more deadly circle of time with the hip-hop-like drum beat grounding the whole while still maintaining a haunting quality. The interweaving of the synth melodies with eerie piano notes was all-consuming, as if the music slow-unravelled layers of pain the sound had been hoarding within it. It seemed every sound added to our understanding of the complexity of pain-not just as an emotion but as an experience mutually unavoidable and transformational: inescapably beautiful, almost hypnotic, and distinctly very emotional at same time, I must say, the development in the song was.
What really impressed me most with “The Normal Amount of Pain” was the sheer range of emotional expression encapsulated in that very strangely familiar, yet unified sound: it was so consistent and well done in everything’s seamless flow that it could be said to have all elements in their complementary relationship. It was really sad and oppressive, yet there was rather a very soothing feeling coming from the music, one it recognized the pain but also offered the possibility of further resolution. This piece did not merely address the subject of pain – it embraced it. Indeed, that emotional richness, together with audio construction, is what makes Bloomfield Machine stand apart from others, and left me thinking about how this talent is able to make something so profound out of the almost simple concept of pain.
Symmetry Mistake:
As if in some insane world, I was caught by the quick catchy beat and round dreamy nature of the one mesmerizing track . “Symmetry Mistake” by Bloomfield Machine from his Suiteness album straight onto me. At first, it captivates the audience with an intricate melody, but then it strikes a good mix of a mellow piano with some funky drumming. Hip-hop with electronica, new and quite satisfyingly the most innovative. Its pure depths lay in the deep bass tones and the gritty electric guitar fills. It is a slow beat, but it definitely has some liveliness in it, which made me feel warm as if caught up in a groove, drawing me into a place where I get lost in the atmosphere of floating free.
Enticed into the multi polyphonic journey, I was forced by an involuntary release of the ear into sound; it laid such a flute-like synth sound at the end of the already consequently quite complex whole. It catapulted it into an entirely new level. Bloomfield Machine’s was very laid-back in such a casual elegance of merging grunge and electronic hip-hop, such that the convergence sounds in wholesome freshness yet nostalgically familiar. The progress of the track immerses you into its own world, as all these novel developments take it forward, making listening that much more involving.
Most touching in “Symmetry Mistake” was its delicate ability to wring the most impossible combination of complexity and simplicity into such lovely shapes. The symmetry is offset by dynamic characteristics that continued to surprise and conceal even while the part that is static seems very simple and easily accessible as well. It is this subtle balance that excites the mind over and above to draw me over and over again. “Symmetry Mistake” is also feel-good and chill, leaving a resonating imprint on how Bloomfield Machine can cast his spell, whether deep or laid back.
Misery Bond:
The song “Misery Bond” from the beautiful album “Suiteness” of Bloomfield Machine is one of those few examples that explains how uniquely one can fuse the genres to create a totally different essence from the original ones. The track is all about how, electronically, the indie and contemporary rock merged into each other. Sounds coherent and highly emotionally spoke. This creation gave an immediate and heavy impact upon me since it threw an over-whelming ocean of emotions, making it appear infinite and utterly immersive. It opens with records of nature soft yet heavy in the background like the humdrum feeling associated with hip-hop at the same time, starting easy but echoic. Enter: the sound-and-soul-affecting guitar strings serenading piano melodies, empirical voices juxtaposed with thunderous and shaky bass sounds further deepening the atmosphere: peaceful but highly atmospheric.
And at 0:30, it has brought “Misery Bond” to something much more powerful but modern and classy. These grungy guitar fills meet the calm but intense drum with the nice piano motifs and thick, bassy sounds, and that shift makes the song give a little less active but rock-y progression with it. Hard-soft textures did indeed come together so brilliantly in that instrumentation, smoothing the moves so effortlessly, making this song quite the ride and pulling me further into its laid-back, cozy groove. It was contemporary progression so astoundingly performed, a rhythm so gentle but gripping that wasn’t without biting charm.
All the more wonderful about “Misery Bond,” it’s able to be this complicated all through an entire tune. It just has that sound of blues rock which conjures heat and familiarity; but somehow all of it feels fresh and new. This very entrancing rhythm has taken my travels right through this entire thing-leaving me awestruck, as with all its wonderful intricacies and deep emotional depths. So, at the last note of this song, I felt that I had gone through something really extraordinary, a memorable journey through sound and emotion which only Bloomfield Machine could contrive.
“Suiteness” by Bloomfield Machine isn’t merely an album. Probably this is a journey with sounds and experiences so personal that it speaks to whosoever listening. Visionary creativity of Kassan: Join genres to make complex mixed soundscapes and create a wide spectrum of evocated emotions, that’s what sets this album apart from the independent/electronic scene. “Suiteness” is for each music lover who understands the beautiful import of figurative things. Listen to it while working or crank it in your headphones to catch all the little nuances; you’ll realize it’s more than just an album. It’s got that uplifting recuperating-to-energizing quality of music.
For more information about Bloomfield Machine, click on the icons below.
Listen to Suiteness by Bloomfield Machine and many more on our Global playlist.
