Besnyo

Worry

(Harvest Sum)

The Besnyo crew almost sound like they’ve been in a laboratory using precise measurements and scientific knowhow to concoct Worry. Just the right measurements of feedback here, dropping the correct tonnage of echo on the scales right over there, and waiting for the chemical reaction of combining whirring synths with cascading drums. Worry is a ballet of beautiful collisions, a mesh of finely tuned textures. Everything New Wave is new again. You can spot the influences at work here: Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine have left imprints on Worry’s respective dark and cold versus warm, omni-directional psychedelia and feedback. “I Blame You For Everything” has a hazey but thundering Stone Roses touch. “Olympic” has insatiable pop savvy, grabbing the rushing, rhythmic grace of Joy Divison while Sean Mikula’s hushed pining sounds like a whispering Robert Smith. Besnyo, however, ably sidestep a simple retreading of post-punk constraints, and Worry presses ahead with its own personality. The canned drum machine claps belie a deeper, majestic balladry on “Blankets” while the title track flirts with avant jazz. Moving beyond the intricate layers of sound, the strength of Besnyo’s songs further takes them over a new threshold. Besnyo achieves finely structured compositions here, moving far beyond the sound collaging of their first album. Co-producer and studio wiz Mark Nosowicz is deserving of some of the praise here, too. His years of toiling in the rural Southtowns barn-turned-studio have reached summation here. Worry is a chillingly refreshing record of stripped but spiky, postmodern dream rock and grandiose, anthemic, orchestral pop. It stands arguably as the finest—the most complete and satisfying—album yet to rise from Buffalo’s Harvest Sum collective of bands.

—donny kutzbach

Besnyo’s Worry is unleashed upon the world this Friday, April 25 at Nietzsche’s with a show celebrating the new release, including appearances by the Lochs, A Hotel Nourishing and Alex Berkley.