THE DYNAMICS OF VANITY by SEBASTIAN MELMOTH

SKU110194
ArtistSEBASTIAN MELMOTH
TitleTHE DYNAMICS OF VANITY
LabelARTIFICIAL DANCE
Catalog #AD008
Tag
ReleaseW 48 - 2019
FormatVinyl - EULP
Exclusive
 € 14,99 incl. VAT, excl. shipping

Tracks

  1. The Engineering Of Consent
    https://objectstore.true.nl/rushhourrecords:files/tracks/a/ad_008_the_dynamics_of_vanity/01_the_engineering_of_consent_44.1_24.mp3
  2. Prosopagnosia
    https://objectstore.true.nl/rushhourrecords:files/tracks/a/ad_008_the_dynamics_of_vanity/02_prosopagnosia_44.1_24.mp3
  3. Waiting For Godot
    https://objectstore.true.nl/rushhourrecords:files/tracks/a/ad_008_the_dynamics_of_vanity/03_waiting_for_godot_44.1_24.mp3
  4. Seeds (Descent Into Decadence)
    https://objectstore.true.nl/rushhourrecords:files/tracks/a/ad_008_the_dynamics_of_vanity/04_seeds_descent_into_decadence_44.1_24.mp3
  5. Icarus
    https://objectstore.true.nl/rushhourrecords:files/tracks/a/ad_008_the_dynamics_of_vanity/05_icarus_44.1_24.mp3

Description

Since forming in 2006 post-punk experimentalists Sebastian Melmoth have been on a thoughtful and adventurous musical journey. In a constant state of aural evolution, the London-based four-piece has a delivered a string of albums and EPs that variously touch on everything from garage-rock, grunge and lo-fi pop, to electro, new wave, dark ambient and music concrete, all the while drawing on a myriad of literary and artistic influences.

The band’s first release for Artificial Dance digs deep into their admirable and eye-opening catalogue and draws together some of the Amsterdam-based label’s favourites from the more electronic end of the band’s output. Entitled “The Dynamics of Vanity” – a comment on Western culture’s obsession with rehashing the past and the band’s own in-built distrust of artistic naval-gazing – the set is not a ‘best of’ retrospective but rather a ‘sort of’ selection of stylistically interconnected cuts that gives a very specific snapshot of the band’s work.

Check for example “Icarus”, a drowsy, hypnotic and sample-laden soundscape that effortlessly joins the dots between post-rock, pitched-down electronica and early morning ambient, or the slowly unfurling throb of thought-provoking opener “The Engineering of Consent”, a swelling, melancholic post-jazz meditation on propaganda and governmental mind control featuring spoken word samples from William S Burroughs in conversation with Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Les Levine and Robert Anton Wilson.

The showcased songs are typically hard-to-pin-down, too, with the re-imagined gothic horror break-up cut “Prosopagnosia’ and slow-burn audio addition of “Waiting For Godot” being joined by the wide-eyed morning dream-pop hallucinations of “Seeds (Descent Into Decadence)”. It all adds up to a collection that expertly showcases one engaging thread – of many – running through Sebastian Melmoth’s esoteric body of work.

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