fantasy of a broken heart (NYC • Dots Per Inch Music)

Immediately bonding over The Flaming Lips and *Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*, the two have lived and worked together on and off ever since, in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, but mostly on the road in between, as rotating members of pirate crews crisscrossing the country and playing in bands like Water From Your Eyes and This is Lorelei, among many others.

The fantasy of a broken heart began on these journeys, in stolen moments while squeezed in between roommates and band members in overcrowded apartments and the cramped backseats of cars. As a creative outlet for two working musicians, “fantasy” started out simply as Al and Bailey writing songs, using music to chronicle the ups and downs of their lives and relationships—with each other and with the sprawling ecosystem of musicians of which they are a part.

The Fantasy of a Broken Heart’s new EP, *Chaos Practitioner*, follows their explosive debut album, *Feats of Engineering* (2024), building on the latter’s quirky yet sincere storytelling while charting new sonic directions. The album showcases the duo’s musical ecosystem with guest appearances from friends old and new, including Jackson Katz of Brutus VIII, Nick Rattigan of Current Joys, and Kelsea Feder of Blums. Mixed by Nate Amos (Water From Your Eyes and This is Lorelei) and mastered by Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz), the six-song collection runs just over 19 minutes, but in that short span guides the listener through a frenetic freefall. The album, as its title suggests, veers between candid reflections on the real world and forays into the haze of daydreams—leaving the boundary open for exploration. “Is it magic or just mystery?” they ask rhetorically on the EP’s third track, “Have a Nice Time Life,” a deliberately nonsensical meditation on the danger and promise of becoming addicted to the thrill.

Bailey’s husky baritone whispers, shouts, and croons, while Al’s airy vocals twang and soar transcendentally, their voices drifting in and out of conversation with one another. A fleeting
dialogue between the two runs through the tracks, often out of sync and sometimes absent altogether. Chaos Practitioner’s meditative and surreal elements are grounded by driving percussion and shimmering twangs of harp, while ethereal synth layers maintain the dreamlike foundation. The final track, “We Confront the Demon in Mysterious Ways,” offers a tentative resolution to the struggle between one’s inner life and the real world—a struggle laid out in the preceding tracks—with Al and Bailey recreating a never-ending argument between two lovers, at times accusatory and at times defensive. “You wanted real love but you got me instead,” Al sings. “Does it feel good when you hurt me back?” replies Bailey.

Al and Bailey call *Chaos Practitioner* their “most bedroom-recorded collection to date.” It was crafted by close friends in close quarters—on the floors of hotel rooms and living room couches—across Brooklyn, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. Though shaped by the surrealist endeavors of ’70s prog-rock and late-’90s dream pop, fantasy’s output is ultimately tethered to reality—to music sculpted by years of live performance. A maximalist diatribe, their sound is guided by whatever the hell they want, but always anchored by the emotional core of their central relationship.

Al says that Bailey is the gas. They’re steering, maybe (sometimes) pressing lightly on the brakes. Indulge in their fantasy, put out your cigarette and pack your bags—or don’t—and come along for the ride.

When the world sputtered to a halt in 2020, the whirlwind stopped. The pair settled in Al’s hometown of Los Angeles, taking the opportunity to hunker down with their twinned sound and commit to their fantasy as a fully-fledged band. They reflected on the time they’d invested in their careers and in each other, harnessing their strengths to confront the ambiguity of this transitional period and draw coherence from a myriad of perspectives.

The resulting debut album, *Feats of Engineering*, is both a sweeping epic and a candid record of everyday moments—an emotional scrapbook filled with things that happened and things that didn’t. It begins, appropriately, with the slow, anxious beeping of a car door left ajar, gradually cut off by the dignified tones of a synthetic organ, which carry you nearly to rapture before the song launches into toe-tapping abandon: “welcome to the fantasy of a broken heart,” Bailey intones. This frenetic dynamic defines the rest of the album, which weaves moments of intimate ambience with bursts of lush orchestration, the heart-pounding bravado of drums and guitar clashing with baroque dignity.

Though shaped by the surrealist endeavors of ’70s prog-rock and late-’90s dream pop, and the logic-defying rules of animated worlds, the album is ultimately tethered to reality—to music sculpted by years of live performance. A maximalist diatribe, its sound is guided by whatever the hell it wants, but anchored by the emotional core of its central relationship. Lyrics veer between the silly and the sincere: from cigarinos and “bibby bops” to euphoric art and Grecian pillars. Bailey’s husky baritone whispers, shouts, and croons, while Al’s airy vocals twang and soar transcendentally, their voices drifting in and out of conversation with one another. The title track is defined by a rare and total harmony: “What’s your intention?/Locomotion in detention/Think of jumping off a broken suspension bridge/In Middletown,” Al and Bailey sing in unison, recalling a bad day in Connecticut.

Whiffs of Americana gathered from cross-country journeys unfold in a panoramic view, alongside moments of conflict and collusion, and sometimes flashes of epiphany. Truth lies buried just beneath the veneer of fiction, but these aren’t love songs—rather, a collection of snapshots capturing the ever-shifting dynamics between two people and their respective worlds.

Al says that Bailey is the gas. They’re steering—maybe (sometimes) pressing lightly on the brakes. Indulge in their fantasy, put out your cigarette and pack your bags—or don’t—and come along for the ride.

https://fantasyofabrokenheart.bandcamp.com/
https://youtu.be/l8wbmyurRmc?si=qzvg1Yy91D4QKcod