Audiopile Review: One of Vancouver’s best kept secrets has got to be Jesse Bru, who has been quietly dishing 12”s across a dozen+ labels since first arriving in 2013 with his debut EP on the Heart To Heart imprint. Though he already has one full length release under his belt, issued on French imprint Happiness Therapy, who also issued two new 12”s to coincide with this new full length (we have both in stock now!), Sea To Sky is a grand statement from an artist who has been confidently building towards this epic, refined trip for a decade. Picked up by the Istanbul-based imprint Oath, who have been on an absolute tear the last few years, issuing albums for John Beltran, Seb Wildblood and Hidden Spheres, Bru is in good company here, slotting in well to the label’s aesthetic of widescreen dance music. Stylistically, Bru has never settled comfortably in any distinct sub genre, flitting between the many permutations of house and techno, though the one element that’s been a mainstay for him is the pursuit of a dream-like atmosphere to back his driving productions. Sea To Sky draws on and expands his nimble genre hopping, throwing everything into an effort that’s just as suitable for hedonistic dance floors as it is for reverential headphone listening. With the PNW as his muse, the aptly named Sea To Sky weaves through a flurry of techniques and stylistic shifts, tracing the interconnecting dots across the spectrum of electronic dance music, arriving in a similar shifty, itchy zone as James Holden’s 2023 polymath effort, Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities. From the cool-electro meets old-school house of “Kalamalka”, the jazzy downtempo of “Deep Cove”, jungle-inspired breaks on “The Drip”, and on to the slow-building dream sequence of the title track, Bru adds flourishes of starry synths and a smart set of vocal samples to lift the whole dang thing skyward. If you’re just checking into his work now, you’ve caught him at an incredible apex. Bru is clearly at the peak of his powers. Huge recommendation. Edition of 300 copies, ordered directly from the artist.

On Oath’s latest release, the imprint is beyond proud to bring renowned West Coast producer Jesse Bru into the fold, who brings with him a truly barnstorming collection of music that dips deep into the in-between and brings forth a captivating audial experience like no other……

Jesse Bru remains one of modern dance music’s most intriguing technicians, both from a humanistic and machine-driven perspective. His sound is born deeply from 90s sample-based approaches, and this fascination has been stretched out and rewritten constantly throughout his releases to great effect. Bru primarily releases music under the guise of House, but to delve deep within his records is to see a much broader perspective, where many genres can be found within the grooves and rhythms. His melodic work, with a particular emphasis on vocal samples as part of melodic exchanges with pianos and synths, is inspiring, to say the least, and as a core facet of his work always aims to shift his sound onwards and upwards. There aren’t many styles that aren’t touched upon within his discography, and his journey to date feels very much like an exercise in understanding the liminal spaces that persist between a myriad of genres. Bru always finds new ways to mesmerize, entice and unfurl within his music, joyous yet calculated and unraveling – a distinctly infectious sound that keeps listeners engaged from start to finish. With stellar releases on labels such as Slothboogie, Aterral, Oath’s sub-label Last Year at Marienbad, Blaq Numbers, and Happiness Therapy, there’s plenty to delve into and get to know.

‘Sea to Sky’ is Bru’s first LP since 2020’s ‘The Coast’, and there aren’t many ground or in-between spaces which he doesn’t cover over the album’s 13 glorious tracks. Shifting from simmering ambient to pumped-up electro, sparkling House cuts through to unraveling downtempo numbers, Bru ensures the listener leaves the experience feeling the totality of his universe.

Some artists spend their whole careers searching for the sweet spots within their musical universes, the spaces in the middle ground which when activated can act as the catalyst for new ideas and progressions. Jesse Bru feels as if he has found these moments within his work many moons ago, and has always found new ways to reinvent the wheel seemingly at will. This new record of his is a testament to that fact, a truly all-encompassing experience that takes both time for the listener to get involved, and knows exactly when to shift gears and take a right turn. Its curated to such a high degree, that every move into differing musical perspectives makes sense, with the tone set at the beginning but with plenty of space left to grow, and that is truly the sign of a great full-length experience. So why not drop the needle on this one, switch off for a bit, and drift through into the cosmos…..