Producer Brave Brothers has a bit of a stranglehold on kpop, and for good reason. His productions are reliably fantastic, if at times a bit uninspired. You’d think, then, that he’d turn to his best material for his own in-house girl group, Brave Girls. I was a bit surprised that Deepened ends up being one of his slower pieces. But after peeling back the layers a bit, there’s actually a lot to love about it.

Deepened exists in a sort of echo chamber of its own. It feels like some weird little song you stumble upon at the end of a dark alley, pulsing and twisting without regard for its more insistent pop peers. The languid verses are almost hypnotic in nature, with the production deliberately submerged beneath murky filters. The chorus perks up a bit, but the track continues to present a dream-like energy. Even the rap, with its odd, sing-songy delivery, feels like it’s delivered at half time, though the vocals are undeniably commanding and resonate long after they’ve finished.

This all makes it sound like Deepened would be a boring song, but its quirks are actually its strongest point. Given the ubiquity of his material, it seems strange to think that a Brave Sound track could stand out. Still, Deepened sounds like nothing else out there. It’s not really a slow jam, and it’s not a dance track. The fact that I can’t define it piques my curiosity and makes me want to come back for more. That alone is certainly a triumph, and much more than I expected.