Toulouse, France-based quartet BRUIT ≤ caused a major ripple in post-rock world (the Strymonisphere?) in 2021 with their debut album, The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again.
The album was reissued in physical formats this year by Pelagic Records (run by Robin Stapps, of German progressive metallers The Ocean) and the band are now warming up to play at the UK's ArcTangent festival on August 19.
Ahead of the show, guitarist Théophile Antolinos has put together this rig tour video for us in order to talk fans through some of the gear and sounds he used across the record.
Post-rock players are often given to a certain degree of tonal cork-sniffing, but watch the clip and you’ll see Antolinos guide you through a beautifully clean, concise and carefully-considered setup that nonetheless looks (and sounds) hugely inspirational.
Even regular tonehounds should find a few surprises here, in a rig that incorporates familiar favorites (e.g a TC Electronic Ditto looper) with some high-end boutique French brands (amp/speaker-builder Dewitte and acoustic-maker Franck Cheval, for instance). We particularly enjoy the OTO Machines gear that has been repurposed into pedalboard units.
The full gear list includes a Rickenbacker 360 Stereo, Fender Jaguar baritone guitar, Cheval acoustic guitar, Verellen Kalaloch stereo head, Orange 2x12 and custom Dewitte cabs (both loaded with Celestions) and on the ’board…
- Boss Volume pedal
- TC Electronic guitar tuner
- Xotic Effects EP Booster
- Z.Vex Lo-fi Junky
- T-Rex Quint octaver
- Crowther Audio Hot Cake
- Strymon El Capistan
- Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal
- Oto Machines BAM reverb and BAUM Warming Unit (gain/compressor/distortion/filter)
- TC Electronic Ditto looper
The pines printed on Antolinos’ custom speaker grilles also reflect the band’s environmental concerns – which in turn motivated one of the album’s centerpiece tracks, Amazing Old Tree. We said it was carefully considered.
BRUIT ≤’s decisions reflect their principles when it comes to distributing their music, too. You won’t find The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again on streaming services – and not just because it’s hard to type.
The band are against the paltry rates offered to artists by big streaming services, so they’ve opted to keep their music off the main platforms, meaning you’ll have to head to the BRUIT ≤’s BandCamp page to get hold of it.
You can give it a stream for free, though and fortunately the move doesn’t seem to have stood in the way of a release that has been hailed as the year’s best post-rock debuts and a “genre-defying masterpiece.”
If you prefer a physical copy, you can order the album over at Pelagic Records. Find out more about ArcTanGent.
