BRUIT ≤ are full of rage.
That is probably the easiest thing to say after seeing them live. It is also not the whole truth.
We saw them at Neue Zukunft in Berlin, in a sold-out room, and yes, the show felt angry. Properly angry. The kind of anger that does not come from wanting to look intense on stage, but from looking at the world for too long and realising the polite version of things is not enough anymore.
But somehow, weirdly, it also felt hopeful.
Because BRUIT ≤ are a band speaking very clearly against a world ruled by fake control. Algorithms deciding what reaches us. Platforms pretending to help artists while swallowing them. Billionaires shaping culture from rooms no one is invited into. Capitalism taking every real human impulse and turning it into something that can be measured, sold, optimised and forgotten.
That sounds like an article about the internet. Or a conversation you have after two beers when someone says “no, but seriously, everything is fucked” and nobody knows where to take it from there.
BRUIT ≤ take it further.
They do it without a singer. Without stopping the show to explain the concept. Without making the room feel like we are being lectured by a band that read a book and got excited. They just build the whole thing in front of you with drums, strings, synths, images and tons of volume.
And the room gets it.
They opened with Ephemeral, our favourite track from The Age Of Ephemerality here at Above the Crowds. The drums came in with a thickness we have not heard live in a very long time. Heavy in the chest, and everyone seemed to understand the route the band was taking us through.
And it wasn’t subtle. CEO soundbites. Images of natural beauty. Images of what humans keep doing to that beauty. Brutal contrasts, impossible to ignore.
A denunciation without a single word, really.
On stage, the band looked completely locked in. There is a strange contrast in how they play. It’s very precise rage, full of expression. Even the anger has structure.
The drums were the main driver for us. Julien Aoufi plays with ridiculous power. At times it looked like he was beating the shit out of the kit, and we mean that with full respect. But then he would shift into patterns that felt much more intricate than the usual post-rock build-and-smash formula. Almost closer to jazz shuffles?
Still, it would be unfair to make it only about the drums.
The strings were just as important. The violin and the cello gave the show its dramatic weight. They were the part that made the anger feel human. When they stepped forward, the whole thing stopped being only about collapse and became something more vulnerable. Like the music was reminding you what was being lost.
And maybe that is where the hope was.
Because yes, BRUIT ≤ are talking about capitalist doom. About control. About systems that keep getting bigger while people are made to feel smaller. About the fake freedom of having infinite choices inside platforms owned by the same few people.
But then you look around and there is a French instrumental band selling out a room in Berlin without depending on the same major streaming platforms they are criticising. People showed up. People listened. People understood.
That feels important.
Because if the message is strong enough, it can still reach the right people. If the work is honest enough, people can still find it. If a band really means what they are doing, a room can feel it before anyone needs to explain it.
After the show, we spoke with them for a bit while buying a cap and a record. They were humble, warm and almost weirdly calm for a band that had just made the room feel like the end of the world had rhythm.
That contrast made us like them even more.
BRUIT ≤ are as humble as they are powerful.
And honestly, what a band. Buy their music and go see them.
All images were taken by Pablo Iriarte with the permission of the artist and venue and are subject to copyright.
For usage rights, please contact photo@piriurdi.es .
