Seamonster¹ - Tsunami Audio Prism

Excellent lethargic post-rock by Swedish duo Seamonster¹ from the year 2000. The missing link between Tortoise’s TNT, Boards of Canada’s Campfire Headphase and Tanz Mein Herz. Beautiful self-released, handmade edition. Criminally under the radar.

It seems the western world (myself included) knows ridiculously little about Scandinavian post-rock / electronic scenes in general and Swedish ones in particular - scenes that have been sprawling for decades and recently found their way into every 1st-class record shops’ crates via labels like Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox and Discreet Musik.

Seamonster¹ gives a striking example of the kind of records that have been wrongly missing from post-rock history text books, with a second album that ticks all the boxes when it comes to desirable exhumed records. Recorded by Swedish brothers Matts and Staffan Björk in their studio of Huskvarna, Tsunami Audio Prism indiscriminately conjugates soft DIY electronics with heady slowcore riffs, building a bridge between turn-of-the-century indie rock and electronic music. Sometimes gritty, the album nonetheless exhales a numbing perfume, that may recall the music of Woo, another duo of brothers known for its intimate DIY blend of indie and electronic music.

Moreover, the album gives off that kind Y2K nostalgia for space & subaquatic exploration (Cf. the Yellow Submarine-esque electronic sounds of « Qsr243_amrit.sat Pulsar » and the naggin horn sections of « [Tir Nakhoda] »), that would eventually inspire stuff like Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; but, fortunately, it trades the kind of sweetness associated with Wes Anderson’s films for a sense of doom. Perfect music to let yourself drift away. (NM/VG+)

Tracklist

1. Qsr243/amrit.sat Pulsar
2. [Tir Nakhoda]
3. ElePSI-kvens
4. I2nervu
5. Aterial 167.321/535.78
6. Kopievsk
7. Trak.AI
8. Transformation