(10.31.06) Seed are back once more. The Posthuman label brings to the electronic masses
Sancho and Mystery Year, the first full album by the collective project.
Seed have always had a knack with music and talent. Like many electronic
labels, Seed have moved away from the conventional crunchy idea of
electronica. The computer, still playing a vital role, has begun to take a
back seat while traditional elements, such as guitars and drums, sneak in.
Likewise, Sancho is following the same line as the label.
Mystery Year ghosts from the realm of guitars, strings and drums to
laptops and synthesizers. Sancho adapt, as much as they adopt, conventional
instruments. The album opens with “We’ve Missed You,” a cyclical work
developed with operatic vocals chopped to fit over a cleansing bass. Guitar
strings intrude before delicate violins slide and the digital takes over
again. A perfect track to open any album with. “As Light Shone, They Fled”
ushers in the acoustic aspect of the album with light guitars and interludes
of bass. A short sweet number. “March” moved into more minimal ground and is
a little less interesting than its predecessors. Once more, guitars figure
heavily, but in a much more repetitive and droning way; one of the more
disappointing tracks of the album.
Despite this brief lull, Mystery Year picks right back up again with
“Spare Rooms.” Here, lyrics are introduced while the organic sound of
acoustics are maintained. A delicate work that echoes the theatrical
elements of track one. A light, even poppy, track where synth lines come
into play to create a beautifully complex, yet simple, track. “(There’s A)
Ghost in the Window” is an atmospheric break before the richly layered, hip
hop orientated “Lover’s Nest” enters. The work is built on a series of
bleeps that develop over light strings, bass and beats to produce a lush
soundscape.
“20 Messages” is one of the most interesting pieces on the album. A post
rock style track, perfectly executed with a blend of beats, guitars and
passion. Track has a similar feel to some of the great music produced by
Genaro, a excellent ensemble on Edinburgh’s Benbecula. The up-beat “Self
(opened) Self comes before the climactic “Blood on Snow,” the album’s final
track. “Blood and Snow” is a wonderfully heavy, yet airy, track. Looming bass
is draped over the work, with delicate strings that weave and turn through
pillars of sounds until a haunting crescendo teases until the piece comes to
rest on a soulful plateau. Excellent track.
Mystery Year is an extraordinarily passionate and deep album. Sancho
employ a huge variety of sounds, flawlessly mixing electronic with acoustic
to produce a awe inspiring flow of music. Sancho is a large group,
containing some nine members. With such a volume of performers, other acts
might have become bogged down in numbers; but not this Seed collective. The
team, by the sounds of their first full album after some CDR appearances,
have managed to work together as a single unit and create a musical tresure.
For too long electronica has been one man and his laptop, Sancho show that
this need not be the case, illustrating, in music, Robert Venturi’s famous
anti minimal call that “less is a bore.”
Mystery Year is out now on Seed.
