ALBUM REVIEW: Brain Paint – Maebe
There’s something to be said for the excitement of picking up your first electric guitar to learn with – beginning with the classic riffs, and then perhaps delving deep into shred masters like YNGWIE MALMSTEEN or more modern guitar virtuosos. Few will understand that better than longtime guitar journalist Michael Astley-Brown. His band MAEBE began as a solo instrumental guitar project, a debut album crafted in his spare time and released in the middle of the 2020 pandemic.
Quite a lot has changed in six years: the expansion to a full five-piece, a second album in 2023 that received positive reviews, and a growing gig-ography that has established them as a key voice in the UK prog, post-rock, and math-rock scenes. But this third album, Brain Paint, carries the same thread audible in all their work: an unabashed love of the guitar and guitar music, capturing the fun and excitement that the instrument can bring to listeners and players alike.
As statements of intent go, the opener and title track Brain Paint sets a pretty high bar. It’s a full velocity rush from the outset, all three guitars going hell-for-leather alongside some hefty drum work. Brain Paint may refer to an ADHD treatment (among other things), but this song and album lean into both attention deficit and hyperactivity patterns, with dynamics that change from sedate to full-throttle at the flick of a switch.
The big change here is the transition to a formal five-piece band structure, Astley-Brown now joined on six-string duties by Duncan Stagg and Will Thomas. Rarely are there fewer than two guitar lines going at the same time, and credit must go to producer Tom Peters for taming this beast. He both brings some of the production energy of his band ALPHA MALE TEA PARTY (minus the signature octave pedal), and keeps the various guitar voices distinct in the mix, rarely straying into muddled overload.
Full-time bass and drum members add a stronger sense of identity, moving away from a programmed approach. There are some nice bits from Nicholas Appelgren on drums, in particular the 16-beat cymbal textures on Dripping Colour. But really, this is all about the guitars, and a little less anchored to expert drumming than modern instrumental luminaries such as COVET or ANIMALS AS LEADERS.
MAEBE cut a slightly different path from the traditional “virtuoso hero” patterns of instrumental music. Brain Paint is neither the technical onanism of old-school names like JOE SATRIANI or PAUL GILBERT, nor the modern Instagram-ready flexes of, say, POLYPHIA. The guitar work throughout is highly competent, but never strays into “how the hell do you do that” territory. Instead, the focus is on hooks and energy. Single lower case song title successfully merges math-rock freneticism with post-rock crescendo. Follow-up single God Wit pulls off the same trick but bigger, guitars running back and forth across fretboards and brains into a tasty hook. There’s a concerted effort to make the material sing, with writing put ahead of showing off.
All this guitar maximalism, combined with a focus on writing songs for live performance without backing tracks, does lead to some sonic staleness. There are some notable exceptions. Sadstorm dips its toes into a mix of prog and post-rock, combining a 5/4 time signature with wah and tremolo guitars. This song especially echoes some of the madcap space-rock energy of The Artful Escape, a guitar-focused videogame sharing the same passion as MAEBE for instrumental guitar odysseys. Elsewhere, the closing track Who Do You Think You Aren’t releases the handbrake and finds a hardcore gear, diving into some chunky breakdowns.
But these are the exceptions – the remainder of the tracks fall into similar gears, each of some individual merit, but all of the same palette. The closest we get to something other than guitars is a light bitcrush effect at the start of the aptly-named Do Not Take Risks. That uniformity, plus the extended runtimes of most songs, can leave the listener’s attention slipping. A tighter focus and perhaps trimming some of the song lengths may have paid dividends here.
Brain Paint may not be an album of big ideas or a profound underlying message. What it feels most geared to do is draw a big smile to hear (and, doubtless, to play as well). Ultimately, MAEBE are in the business of guitar maximalism, to be taken at face value, and loaded with verve and energy. On this front, Brain Paint achieves everything it sets out to do. Doubtless, there will be guitar players out there, old and new, who can draw a spark of excitement and inspiration from hearing this.
Rating: 8/10
Brain Paint is set for release on May 22nd, 2026 via Ripcord Records.
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