Seams “Tourist” is PICT002
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Following the success of sell out single “Nightcycles” (Tough Love Records) and live dates supporting Gold Panda and Dam Mantle, Seams (James Welch) packed his bags to relocate to Berlin for summer.
“I expected my music to become much dancier because of Berlin’s rep as a techno haven, but actually I found the opposite.”
Chatting to Seams on his return it was easy to see that instead of inspiring a more underground and dance-centric sound in his music, the omnipotence of techno pushed him away from imitation with the resulting “Tourist” EP recreating the feeling of Berlin’s outdoor living in summer.
Having packed light taking no equipment beyond his laptop, Seams spent his time recording sounds from around him on an old cassette recorder and his mobile phone. Field recordings taken from his daily adventures became the basis for each track, creating audio snapshots of a time or place. With this stripped down approach Seams has created a stunning and engaging journey that guides you blindfold through the atmospheres of Berlin in summer.
“Hung Markets” builds hypnotically with layer upon layer of delicately placed small loops building to a mesmerising and spacious climax that finds itself moving at a fast walking (and head nodding) pace towards the abstract “Carnival”. This track, an exercise in both production and sound design, not only transports the listener to a different place in time and space but also shows off the diversity of Seams’s production talent. “Nachtmusik” is a slower, more beat-led track, with a thick bass line contrasting beautifully with subtle high-pitched percussion. The EP closes with “Platz” which perfectly captures the city’s summer whilst exuding both a gloss and an acoustic naturality. A busker’s drumming sampled “holding a mobile phone in one hand and a cassette dictaphone in the other” perfectly sum up this record’s homogeneous fusion of the acoustic and electronic.
Seams has “taken the intangible qualities of a community, the aural qualities of a place, and made them familiar in a foreign context. It’s the kind of thing that always makes for critically impressive listening” – Andrew Ryce, FACT magazine
“personal electronic music with a rare warmth and an open heart“ – DUMMYmag
“His music is just absolutely beautiful” – Huw Stephens BBC Radio1
“Seams debut release for the excellent Pictures Music is a thing of real beauty” – BLEEP.com
“If there’s one artist I’m peeing myself about right now who isn’t from the funny side of the Atlantic, it’s Seams.” - A Pocket Full of Seeds
“mad sexy bastard” – Gold Panda
“Love Nachtmusik and Hung Markets (they are the ones for me). Right up my street….. found sounds over dancefloor orientated beats” – Throwing Snow
On Hung Markets “a 7 minute burst of electronic goodness, decorated with tinkling glass and a synth bass line that you just can’t help but groove to” – Sarah Sahim, NeuMagazine
“the record is sure to be a mesmerizing sonic exploration. Anyone that can have me repeatedly listening to a 7 minute instrumental is clearly onto something.” – Dipped In Dollars
Seams – ‘Tourist’ – PICT002
Release date: 22nd November 2010
Track Listing
Hung Markets (free download)
Carnival (video)
Nachtmusik
Platz
Produced by James Welch
Cover photo by Matthias Heiderich
Design by Matt Chlebek
Mastered at The Cutting Suite
Press:
DummyMag, DummyMag(interview), Dazed&Confused(interview), XLR8R, TheFader(interview), FACT, AmericanSongwriterMagazine, GoodPopBadPop, ElectronicBeats, TheLineOfBestFit, Platform, PlayGround LikeHotCakes, BoxMusique, NoModestBear, ArtSchoolVets, BigUpMagazine, Aufgemischt, ISO50, ItsOurs, FractionsOfOne(interview), GetToTheFuture, NeuMagazine, (VIDEO), PartTimeMusic, You’llSoonKnow, TheFourOhFive, ItsGettingBoringByTheSea, APocketFullOfSeeds, NoFearOfPop, FutureSequence, SlothBoogie, ToughLove, DippedInDollars, oMAKo, FutureSoundsTempory, Peenko, Toro, AudioManiacs, WeTakeMoreDrugs, ChromeKids, LiveForTheFunk(mixtape), DownloadDubstep, LaFéeBerde, ILikeMusic(danceplaylistoftheweek 8/11/10).
Radio:
HuwStephensBBCRadio1, Jon Hillcock’sNewNoise, TheBigPaws, HoldBoxFlat, FACTradio(RedBullRadio), EricTchaikovsky(EuropePlus(104.0 FM),Ukraine/Mariupol), IndependentMusicPodcast#25.