New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Brain-switching and mental re-coding, thought manipulation, synapse mapping and rewiring: things that used to be the exclusive province of science fiction have lately begun to look like real possibilities. Advances in neuroscience mean that the mind is not the immutable thing it once was. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, that depends on whose hands are on the switches. It's a treacherous moment in human history, and The BreakBomb Project songwriter and producer Brandon Greenstein has arrived to make sense of it - or at least to have a little fun with it all while thoughts are uploaded into the mainframe.
The explosive new BreakBomb single follows the mesmerizing work that Greenstein did on Neurobridge, a clever, energetic, and frequently beautiful EP that established him as one of the most imaginative new artists in electronic music. The four-song set got fans dancing, but it also made them think about the world that their desires have created. The provocation continues "Too Late," a track that's more urgent, more immediate, more bracing, and more exciting than anything he's yet recorded. Everything that makes The BreakBomb Project an irresistible proposition is here, including the crisp, frenetic drum programming, alternately atmospheric and melodic synthesizers, club-ready breakdowns and digital mischief, and a gorgeous performance from vocalist Ryan Violet, who matches his warm and deeply human tenor to Greenstein's gripping machine-processed beats.
The track also continues - and intensifies - Greenstein's fascination with the digital manipulation of brainwaves, and, by extension, personalities. He wonders whether (as another synthesizer explorer once memorably put it) humans have gone too far to rewind. In the heady, beautifully-shot video he's created for "Too Late," Greenstein investigates the intersection of identity, technology, and extreme adventure. In it, Greenstein and Violet enact a neurobridge of their own. Through the use of a headset attached to an archaic computer, they're plunged into a virtual reality complete with a wild ride through the snow. What's the price for their exploration? More than either of them can imagine.
The "Too Late" clip stands on its own as a complete statement. But it's part of a larger film: an ambitious eight-minute segment that elaborates Greenstein's ideas and puts the song in the context of a wider science fiction story. The two artists are on the trail of a pioneering scientist who vanished after creating a prototype version of a brain-altering technology in the 1980s. He's left nothing behind but a codex of his experiments. The search takes them to a disused factory, and an inner chamber that serves as a foyer into a world of inner mystery — the noosphere, a frightening frontier that takes these digital trespassers past the outer limits of the human experience.
