Sylphid Vitalizers is the debut full-length from New York-based banjo/guitar shredder, Brandon Seabrook. Named "NYC's Best Guitarist of 2012" by the Village Voice, his work has been profiled by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Fret Board Journal, and the UK avant-music magazine, Wire. Seabrook's work typically reflects the energy, dissonance, and hardworking ethos of the creative rock underground, without falling victim to the aesthetic constraints of scene or genre. Sylphid Vitalizers is no exception, harnessing hyperreal technique and impeccable articulation to stratify ecstatic cacophony, bridging the realms of extreme rock and the classical avant-garde.
Recognized by the New York Times as "a man apparently hellbent on earning the title of World's Least Rustic Banjo Player." Seabrook’s aggressive punk appropriation of the four-stringed banjo is abundantly evidenced on Sylphid Vitalizers. Album opener 'Ballad of Newfangled Vicissitudes' opens with a series of multi-tracked, dissonant modulations, somewhat reminiscent of the classic guitar orchestras of Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, before cresting the heavens and laying waste to the stratosphere. The tune is constructed on a framework that bookends expanses of wide-open texture with dissonant, startlingly fast runs, punctuated by pummeling drums. The guitar work is equally formidable, rendering terms like 'shred' and 'speed picking' laughably inchoate. 'Cabeza Spams & Aural Championships' opens with chromatic flurries in lockstep with the programmed drums before transfiguring into a set of stacked chords, blossoming in both intensity and surreal beauty, manifesting an hallucinatory landscape. 'Mucoidal Woolgathering' is another blistering piece for banjo, marrying a prolapsing, tumbling pentatonic run to layers of gnarled droning banjo before spiraling out of orbit. Even when the music is at the peak of density and freneticism, the music is executed with inhuman precision and dexterity.
Brandon's work treads a broad swath through contemporary underground music, dealing in everything from avant-jazz with Gerald Cleaver's Black Host and trumpeter Peter Evans' groups, to klezmer with Naftule's Dream, and collaborations with legends likeAnthony Braxton and Elliott Sharp. His own vehicle, Seabrook Power Plant, have released two self-titled albums, fittingly titledSeabrook Power Plant I (2009) and Seabrook Power Plant II (2011), released on Brooklyn’s Loyal Label. On June 24, 2014, cosmic sound imprint New Atlantis Records will release his solo guitar/banjo debut, Sylphid Vitalizers, and the bar for solo electric guitar/banjo composition and performance may never be set higher.
* The new record sports a cover collage by Brooklyn-based visionary artist/tattooer Matt Bivetto, and layout by legendary The Designer's Republic.
"Sylphid Vitalizers" Track List:
1. Ballad of Newfangled Vicissitudes (Video)
2. Selfodomized Poltergeists
3. Mucoidal Woolgathering
4. Cabeza Spasms & Aural Championships
5. Lurid Clusters
Brandon Seabrook Live!
June 18 - New York, NY @ Cake Shop (Record Release Show)
June 20 - TBA Philly or Baltimore
June 21 - Silver Spring, Maryland @ Sonic Circuits
June 22- Richmond, VA @ Steady Sounds Record Store (earl show 3pm)
June 23 -Wilmington, NC @ Sqidco
June 24 - Chattanooga, TN @ Barking Legs Theater
June 25 - Nashville, TN @ The Stone Fox
June 26 - Lexington, KY @ Mecca Dance Studio
June 27- Columbus, OH @ The Summit (early show 7pm)
June 28 - Lafayette, ID @ The Black Sparrow
June 29 - Chicago, IL @ Constellation
June 30 - TBA Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor
July 1 - Detroit, MI @ Trinosophes Music Series
July 2 - Akron, OH TBA
July 3 - Dayton, OH @ Canal St
For more information, visit:
www.seabrookpowerplant.com
www.http://sundmagi.com
Recognized by the New York Times as "a man apparently hellbent on earning the title of World's Least Rustic Banjo Player." Seabrook’s aggressive punk appropriation of the four-stringed banjo is abundantly evidenced on Sylphid Vitalizers. Album opener 'Ballad of Newfangled Vicissitudes' opens with a series of multi-tracked, dissonant modulations, somewhat reminiscent of the classic guitar orchestras of Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, before cresting the heavens and laying waste to the stratosphere. The tune is constructed on a framework that bookends expanses of wide-open texture with dissonant, startlingly fast runs, punctuated by pummeling drums. The guitar work is equally formidable, rendering terms like 'shred' and 'speed picking' laughably inchoate. 'Cabeza Spams & Aural Championships' opens with chromatic flurries in lockstep with the programmed drums before transfiguring into a set of stacked chords, blossoming in both intensity and surreal beauty, manifesting an hallucinatory landscape. 'Mucoidal Woolgathering' is another blistering piece for banjo, marrying a prolapsing, tumbling pentatonic run to layers of gnarled droning banjo before spiraling out of orbit. Even when the music is at the peak of density and freneticism, the music is executed with inhuman precision and dexterity.
Brandon's work treads a broad swath through contemporary underground music, dealing in everything from avant-jazz with Gerald Cleaver's Black Host and trumpeter Peter Evans' groups, to klezmer with Naftule's Dream, and collaborations with legends likeAnthony Braxton and Elliott Sharp. His own vehicle, Seabrook Power Plant, have released two self-titled albums, fittingly titledSeabrook Power Plant I (2009) and Seabrook Power Plant II (2011), released on Brooklyn’s Loyal Label. On June 24, 2014, cosmic sound imprint New Atlantis Records will release his solo guitar/banjo debut, Sylphid Vitalizers, and the bar for solo electric guitar/banjo composition and performance may never be set higher.
* The new record sports a cover collage by Brooklyn-based visionary artist/tattooer Matt Bivetto, and layout by legendary The Designer's Republic.
"Sylphid Vitalizers" Track List:
1. Ballad of Newfangled Vicissitudes (Video)
2. Selfodomized Poltergeists
3. Mucoidal Woolgathering
4. Cabeza Spasms & Aural Championships
5. Lurid Clusters
Brandon Seabrook Live!
June 18 - New York, NY @ Cake Shop (Record Release Show)
June 20 - TBA Philly or Baltimore
June 21 - Silver Spring, Maryland @ Sonic Circuits
June 22- Richmond, VA @ Steady Sounds Record Store (earl show 3pm)
June 23 -Wilmington, NC @ Sqidco
June 24 - Chattanooga, TN @ Barking Legs Theater
June 25 - Nashville, TN @ The Stone Fox
June 26 - Lexington, KY @ Mecca Dance Studio
June 27- Columbus, OH @ The Summit (early show 7pm)
June 28 - Lafayette, ID @ The Black Sparrow
June 29 - Chicago, IL @ Constellation
June 30 - TBA Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor
July 1 - Detroit, MI @ Trinosophes Music Series
July 2 - Akron, OH TBA
July 3 - Dayton, OH @ Canal St
For more information, visit:
www.seabrookpowerplant.com
www.http://sundmagi.com
No comments:
Post a Comment