Though their taut, driving motoric music might scream of
70’s West Germany, Sei Still are, in fact, a five-piece band hailing
from Mexico City. Their machine-like sonic experimentations emerging not
out acid-fuelled jam sessions in some underground communal space tucked
away in this or that German city but, instead, three friends taking a
random trip to desolate Mexican woodland to work on a couple of songs
that would end up leading them to start a fully-fledged band. Now, said
band are signing to London-based label Fuzz Club to put out their self
titled debut album, due for release April 10th
.
It
was Lucas Martin (Guitar/Vocals), Mateo Sanchez (Guitar/Vocals) and
Andres Lupone (Bass/Vocals) that would embark on that formative woodland
excursion but, now fleshed out into a full band, they’re also joined by
Sebastian Rojas (Synth/Organ) and Jeronimo Martin (Drums). The record
itself also bolstered by the production of Hugo Quezada, who they
describe as “an icon from the Mexican underground scene and a true
synthesizer aficionado.” As well as the given indebtedness to bands like
Can, NEU! and the minimalism movement, together, Sei Still say that the
album also take great inspiration from “Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’, ‘Easy
Rider’ (the concept of the road has always been a present image of our
collective imaginary) and the aesthetics of Spanish new-wave bands like
Aviador Dro and Décima Víctima.”
Sesiones con Martin Delgado 105.3FM - Sei Still
Though delivered
with Sei Still’s own distorted touch, the album’s eponymous
opening-track ‘Blumenkriege’ recalls Stereolab at their most Kraut; the
unrelenting motorik instrumentation overlaid with lush ethereal vocals
courtesy of close friend Mabe Fratti and swirling analogue synths. ‘El
Camino’, which they say “represents the group’s idea of movement,
something that’s never static and is always changing, like life itself”
is a driving
NEU!-esque wig-out, propelled by a sharp
repetitive bassline so tight you can physically feel the tension
building and building, never letting loose for a second. That propulsive
energy is carried through to ‘Emision’ and paired with menacing
feedback-heavy guitars and ominous atmospherics.
In
the album’s second half, songs like ‘Fortuna’ and ‘Television’ fuse
those motorik sensibilities with eerie spoken-word vocals, hypnotic
synths and phaser-heavy guitars that drag the bands sound into more
psychedelic territory. The album then wrapping up with the penultimate
‘Ladron’–a piece of dark manipulated drone a la Spacemen 3–and the
sprawling 10-minute album-closer ‘Tácticas de Guerrilla Urbana’ which
stretches the Sei Still sound to its outermost limits, in the most
gloriously trance-inducing way.
Now signed to
European label Fuzz Club and ready to transmit their angular Krautrock
to a trans-Atlantic audience, Sei Still have spent the last few years
cultivating a notorious reputation in their native Mexico, sharing the
stage with the likes of Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo, Holy Wave, Institute,
New Candys, 10 000 Russos and Lorelle Meets the Obsolete.