This Is Book’s Music

When I popped in this CD by Seabrook Power Plant, I only had the album cover and a photo of the trio to rely on. One of the members was holding a banjo, and the cover looked like a demented turtle with tentacles spewing out green smoke with dirt and weeds surrounding it. Then again, was it a turtle I was looking it? I had no idea, but I pressed play, and there was some furious banjo playing from Brandon Seabrook. After the solo, he along with bassist Tom Blancarte and drummer Jared Seabrook started playing speed metal style, or at least punking it up to where I had a grin from ear to ear. What the hell is this? I had to investigate, which meant “I must take a deeper listen.”

“Ho Chi Minh Trail” arguably has a Chinese aura about it, or maybe the title is a mere suggestion. The song starts out as 3/4 before going into 4/4, moving from something folksy and rootsy to something that sounds distinctly ethnic. It sounds Jewish or at least European in origin, and then it is clearly something that sounds like what you’d hear coming out from a Chinese village. But it’s a Chinese melody on ludes, hopping along the bunny trail, and maybe that makeshift turtle on the album cover is running… aaah, for cover. Maybe?

This self-titled album (Loyal Label) starts unfolding as if it was Watership Down or something, where main characters and sounds start coming out of the group (like the turtle?) or woodwork and having a happy dance, being exposed to the elements and tripping out on nature.

Oh I see, as I’m looking at the album cover and the illustration on the back, what looks like rats with gas masks, it seems the cover may not be a turtle, but an actual power plant, twisted and deformed. The first time these guys come to anything sane is track 3, “Waltz Of The Nuke Workers”, and suddenly the picture becomes somewhat clear, or at least comprehensible. This is post-apocalyptic folk, musicians jamming for survival interpreting their deathly surroundings. Or is this the last recording of a post-apocalyptic planet? Brandon Seabrook moves over from banjo to guitar for some tracks, where he’s able to utilize feedback and sustain to create some dark textures that move from sounding like a land of room to some kind of twisted 2k video game sounds run through some distorted guitar pedal. What I like about this band is that they may gather together ideas for a concept, and they do so by covering different things in one song so that these tracks not only don’t sound like one another, but segments in a single song don’t relate to each other either. The weirdness caught me offguard, or… maybe weird isn’t the word, but I had that squooshy “WTF?” face along with a smirk which can be interpreted as “wow, this shit is fantastic.” With only three musicians here, elements are sparse but power trios are called this because of what they’re able to bring into the mix. Then about 2/3′s of the way through, they’re doing Melvins-like stoner metal, with a song that sounds like it could be honoring King Buzzo and friends, “I Dont’ Feel So Good”. Within the song, a guitar solo that sounds like something The Great Kat would do, so yes, get ready for hyperspeed.

I don’t know if there are any other bands who sound like this, but they are a trio who probably would welcome anyone in a live setting to go on their pesky musical trips. I can see Carla Kilstedt tearing things up, or Mike Patton turning these somewhat dark and gloomy moods into something ill, in both sense of the word. On its own, it may be meant for interpretation but I have a feeling these guys aren’t about to speak up and explain themselves so easily.

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