Brassica's obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition have created something self-consciously experimental and intellectual yet wonderfully refined and thrillingly accessible. Seamless, idiosyncratic and immaculately produced yet wilfully lo-fi, the album is rich with musical and lyrical detail and while the originality and non-conformity at play is to be applauded, this album will not scare off anyone with an interest in music beyond the mainstream. Man is Deaf is not exactly a dance album; and although there is music you can dance to on it, it's ability to excite is accomplished with no diminution on its makers creativity.
With the album full of melody lines by Moog and Fender Rhodes, rather than Roland 303s or 909s, Brassica is more likely to cite paragons like Talking Heads, King Crimson or Return to Forever as inspirations than Derrick May, Cabaret Voltaire or Aphex Twin, yet all these influences and more are cultivated to create something new that still manages to be oddly familiar. It's in the pathos of the promiscuous liaisons between noirish anxiety, elements that could have been caned by Belgian new beat and Italian Cosmic DJs, naughty MIDI riffs and orchestral moments that this album generates a gripping power of its own.
