Bloomfield Machine - Copium

​Bloomfield Machine

Copium
self-released; 2025

By Jamie Funk
​

On his eighth full-length release as Bloomfield Machine, Huntington Beach-based artist Brian Kassan continues to carve out his own strange, shimmering corner of experimental pop. Copium is deeply introspective, written, performed, produced, and mastered entirely by Kassan in his apartment, but the world it builds feels expansive. The album is thick with texture and atmosphere, pulling from ambient, rock, glitch, and post-rock influences without ever feeling tethered to any one sound. It moves more like memory than music, abstract and intimate all at once.

The opener, “Clusterflux,” sets the tone with a cinematic scope. I was drawn in by the unusual percussion and how clearly each synth line seems to stake out its own space. “Aisle of White” pivots into heavier territory, an instrumental rock track with a pulsing intensity that reminded me of Tame Impala if the vocals were stripped away and left to smolder. “Deliberate Confusion” was a highlight for me. The synths are rich and expressive, layered with bursts of white noise and percussion that feel both chaotic and deliberate. When the title track arrives, it stretches out just a little longer, touching on post-rock’s patient sense of build without losing Kassan’s sharp sense of economy.

The rest of the tracks clock in under three minutes, each one feeling like a small sonic vignette. I found myself wishing a few of them were longer, just to see where they might go if allowed to breathe. But I get the sense that Kassan prefers this format, brief, distilled snapshots rather than sprawling statements. There is something confident in that choice, in knowing when to pull away instead of pressing further.

​What ties Copium together is its compositional clarity. Built entirely in Reason and drawn from an eclectic palette of sounds, it feels like a personal transmission from a quiet corner of the mind. It may be subtle and reserved, but it leaves a distinct impression. For me, it felt like paging through someone’s emotional notes, unfinished thoughts, fleeting moods, and wordless memories wrapped in analog warmth. Copium does not overreach. It stays with you in a quiet, almost ghostlike way, echoing in the background long after the final track ends.

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