For some time now, Brendon Avalos has been forging a path for himself among the clamour of emerging indie artists as the bassist and vocalist of Brooklyn punk trio B Boys. Now, he has announced the release of his first solo effort – a full length album entitled Losing Count – under the alias Gift Wrap.
Along with the announcement Avalos has released the album’s title track, which can be heard now below! The song is accompanied by a grainy, lo-fi camcorder styled video. It candidly follows Brendon as he travels through New York on the subway, seamlessly hopping from line to the next. He’s always on the move and it’s easy to lose sense of where he’s going and his purpose but maybe that’s the point. Avalos says, “The video was made using a VHS effect app on my iPhone. It creates a voyeuristic quality that I thought was fitting to the vibe. The video was just a basic premise of being in the subway down in NYC and how that constant daily thing is in itself pretty stressful.”
With each track draped in whimsically looping layers and interspersed with the pervasion of old radio samples, buzzing, and hums to create a tate of constant white noise, Avalos successfully conveys a state of latent anxiety through danceable, weirdo pop. In this way, Losing Count becomes an exercise in synthesizing the collective experience of today’s political and cultural climates into a fully individualized expression.