{"id":5940,"date":"2023-05-26T11:21:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T16:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2023-05-26T13:52:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T18:52:52","slug":"mysterious-textures-brandon-seabrook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/mysterious-textures-brandon-seabrook\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Textures: A Conversation with Brandon Seabrook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Youthful zeal often brings a desire to show your technical capabilities. Young athletes try to sprint as rapidly as possible, while their musician counterparts often try to fit in as many notes into a solo as possible. But age frequently leads people to realize that while such showcasing skills are great, they are mere tools in a larger kit. There is a time to run and to rest. While referring to Brandon Seabrook\u2019s earlier works as juvenile is fallacious, one cannot help but sense a new level of maturity in brutalovechamp <\/em>(Pyroclastic, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seabrook has made a name for himself through precise artillery barrages of notes; perhaps some modernized avant-garde development of Coltrane\u2019s sheets of sound. Long impulsive runs have been a central part of such groups as his trio Seabrook Power Plant, a group once donned by the Village Voice as \u201ca manic clusterfuck of merciless banjo torture.\u201d The guitarist-banjoist is also an incredibly physical player, often seemingly possessed by the music as he contorts and twists his body to reflect the resonances of the strings in front of him. Seabrook\u2019s ruthless approach to performance emerges directly from the punk ethos of his musical upbringing. And it\u2019s certainly worked well for him, as he has used the approach on several excellent records under his own name and in working with such creative music heavyweights as Anthony Braxton and Elliot Sharp. But how long can it last as the artist approaches forty? Perhaps just as importantly, how can one fully appreciate the destructive nature of a curtain of fire without seeing the barren ground without it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brutalovechamp<\/em> finds Seabrook with his new octet, Epic Proportions. The group\u2019s name is fitting as they produce an immense work; one big in both ideas and sound. The album\u2019s eight through-composed pieces cover a significant musical expanse with a focus on different sound textures. The title track\u2019s use of mandolin and recorder speaks of Medieval Folk Rock ala Fairport Convention before it evolves into a thrashing funk groove. The first of the two-part \u201cI Want To Be Chlorophylled\u201d shifts between mesmerizing walls of chords and staccato guitar lines. Throughout the album, Seabrook does not shy away from his characteristically smoldering runs. There are still blasts of sound and, at some moments, even screams. But these elements are but a few of the colors he uses. The album makes ample use of space and silence, causing the scorching moments to burn deeper. In this sense, \u201cFrom Lucid to Ludicrous\u201d is downright atmospheric and probably the track most likely to surprise the bandleader\u2019s followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what emerges through the album <\/em>is the confirmation that Seabrook is more than just a gifted performer. With brutalovechamp, <\/em>the guitarist-banjoist announces his significance as a contemporary polystylist composer who gives equal weight to the ideas of giants like Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Smith, and Alfred Schnittke but binds himself to none of them. We sat down with Seabrook to discuss the octet and the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: Brutalovechamp<\/em> sounds very different from some of your other works. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brandon Seabrook: Yeah. Well, I had more time to work on it than I usually would for an album. I wrote the compositions over about seven months and then recorded them in three days. It was pretty luxurious to have three whole days in the studio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically, I didn’t want to leave the same kind of hailstorm of sound on the audience that I usually do in my music. I wanted to get in touch with some more space and lyricism; things that I love but which haven\u2019t been represented much in my other works. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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