Bright is a

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

and

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

group based in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Background

Bright formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1993 initially as a recording project, with Mark Dwinell (guitar, vocals) and Joe LaBrecque (drums) creating songs with minimal vocals, extensive

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

-influenced improvisation and repeating

measures Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Measu ...

. Initial raw sessions were documented at the Albatross Guest House on a 4-track recording machine and were later

overdubbed Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

. A

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

culled from these recordings initially released on Eek records made its way into the hands of Ben Goldberg at

Ba Da Bing! Ba Da Bing Records is an American record label based in Brooklyn, New York. The name is derived from the saying "ba da bing, ba da boom", common among Italian-Americans, especially in New Jersey. The label was founded in Leonia, New Jersey in 19 ...

records. To fill out the group and facilitate live performance Bright brought more musicians into the fold – Jay Dubois (bass) and Paul LaBrecque (guitar, trumpet) In 1996, they released their eponymous self-titled debut on

records with veteran studio engineer

Jacques Cohen Jacques Cohen (born December 26, 1951) is a Dutch Embryology, embryologist based in New York, U.S. He is currently Director at Reprogenetics LLC, Laboratory Director at ART Institute of Washington at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ...

(

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were Silver Apples Silver Apples were an American electronic rock group from New York, active between 1967 and 1970, before reforming in the mid-1990s. It was composed of Simeon (born Simeon Oliver Coxe III, June 4, 1938 – September 8, 2020), who performed o ...

, Jerkwater) recording. In 1997,

The Albatross Guest House ''The Albatross Guest House'' is the second studio album by Bright. It came out as a split release CD on Darla Records (catalog #DRL-044) and Ba-Da-Bing! Records (catalog #BING-010) in 1997. Track listing All songs written by Bright #"You Need ...

4 track sessions was released and Bright reverted to a duo by the following year. During that time, the group recorded the mostly instrumental Blue Christian for

Darla Records Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis. Background The music of the artists on the ...

Bliss Out series. Parting ways with Jay and Paul, Bright recorded

Full Negative (or) Breaks ''Full Negative (or) Breaks'' is the fourth studio album by Bright, released in 2000. Following its release, the band went on hiatus until 2005's '' Bells Break Their Towers''. In the interim, the outfit relocated from Boston, Massachusetts to ...

in 1999. In 2000, the band now included Michael Torres (electric guitar, nylon string guitar, violin) and Mike Cory (bass guitar) and covered

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...

's ''Korn Ring Finger'' for a tribute album to

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Don Van Vliet Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a ...

and his ''Magic Band''. At the close of 2001, Bright went on hiatus; Mark Dwinell recorded his solo debut NONLOC in 2002 (including various back-up by Torres) . In 2003, Bright began performing again sporadically, at times a six piece with all former members performing, and also picking up Nate Longcope before heading back to the studio in 2004 to record Bells Break Their Towers, released by Strange Attractors Audio House in 2005. After Bright dissolved, Mark Dwinell relocated from Boston to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and went on to found the synth trio Forma. They released their debut album on Spectrum Spools in 2011 and remain active as of 2016.

Discography

LP Recordings

* Bright (1995 cassette-only release on Eek, limited to 100 copies) *

Bright Bright may refer to: Common meanings *Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness *Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence People * Bright (surname) * Bright (given name) *Bright, the stage na ...

(1996 release on Ba Da Bing!) *

(1997 release on Darla) * Blue Christian (1998 release that also served as Bright's contribution to the

Bliss Out BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C ...

series on Darla) *

(2000 release on Ba Da Bing!) *

The Miller Fantasies Bright is a post-rock and ambient music group based in Brooklyn, New York. Background Bright formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1993 initially as a recording project, with Mark Dwinell (guitar, vocals) and Joe LaBrecque (drums) creating son ...

(2002 release on Ba Da Bing!) * Bells Break Their Towers (2005 release on Strange Attractors)

Singles, EPs and Compilations

* V/A Dreamboat "Cecilia" (1997 release on Cassiel Records) * Fuxa / Bright "City and Metro" and "How I Reached Home" (1997 split 7-inch on Darla Records) * "Plymouth Rock" b/w "Superstrings," "Nova" (1998 7-inch on Ba Da Bing!) * V/A Badaboom Gramophone, Vol. 2 (1998 release on Ba Da Bing!) * V/A Darla 100 (2000 release on Darla) * V/A Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish: A Tribute to Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (2003 release on Animal World) * V/A Yeti No. 4 (2006 Yeti Magazine CD compilation)

Trivia

*An album entitled ''My Life and Style'' distributed by The Orchard is often misattributed to this band. The recording was done by a little-known hip hop outfit that happened to use the same moniker (they spell their name "BRiGHT"). *A CD single, "Turning Point," by a Swiss pop band also called Bright appeared in 2006; it is mistakenly included with the band's releases on retail and informational websites. *Paul LaBrecque, who appeared on Bright's debut CD, went on to become a member of

Sunburned Hand of the Man Sunburned Hand of the Man are an experimental rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. They are a loose collective known for their frequent line up changes and large discography released on a variety of labels including Eclipse Records, Thurston M ...

, the Other Method, Astral Blessing, and others; he also contributed to

Wedlock (album) ''Wedlock'' is a double album by Massachusetts band Sunburned Hand of the Man, released on the Eclipse Records label in 2005. The album consists of recordings the band made during their trip from the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival to Alaska and d ...

in 2005, joined with Sunburned member John Maloney and

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

for a 2006 Belgian performance. * Jonathan Lamaster of

Cul de Sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

began performing regularly with Bright for live performances in 2005.

External links

Band bio from Strange Attractors Audio HouseReview of Bright live from the Boston Phoenix
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bright Musical groups from Boston American post-rock groups Darla Records artists