Seims - V - Progressive Voyages
Seims- V- Progressive Voyages Review PV044
Seims are an Australian group who play what is often referred to as either post Rock or Math Rock, neither which are terms I am very familiar with, My good friend Google tells me iths a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that emerged in the late 80's and early 90's, it is characterised by complex and unconventional rhythmic structures which include irregular time sequences and syncopation, it lists both King Crimson and Rush as good examples of the genre.
So with that cleared up let’s see what this is all about shall we?
This is the fifth album from Seims, all their albums are sequentially numbered thus far and each seems to have a different central theme or set of thoughts or experiences that form much of the inspiration for the tracks, the album consists of a mere 9 tracks where are all relatively short nothing here is over 6 minutes duration. An earlier album dealt with shapes and another with CMYK colour model so Seims are definitely unorthodox in their approach to making music.
In the 4 years since the last Seims album main man Simeon Bartholomew has become a father and this album is about that experience and how it has affected him and invariably changed his world and his outlook on life as a result.
This is an interesting album that really falls outside of my normal comfort zone of mostly symphonic Progressive Rock, So for me this album is a challenge to understand and review, As I have listened to it I certainly get the abrupt and ragged time changes and odd time signatures that the music freely embraces, what I didn’t expect but did really enjoy was the excellent use of both brtrings that provides much of the melodic sensibilities they album offers such as on the brief Ends Tether which is based on an interesting plucked guitar line before at the 3.00 minute point becomes decidedly heavier and far more intense with a bruising soundscape, being the result.
Flowing upstream is another interesting track in that it has a lot of shifts in its time signatures every is unconventional and seemingly inconsistent, in fact it is the strings that anchor and hold the track together for means without them the track would bee too difficult to properly embrace, at the 3.00 mark a wall of feedback erupts in a hard driving bass riff that makes a very strong impact on the track, this is a very different style of music although it’s not particularly to my liking, I can see why it appeals to some folks it certainly has melody woven throughout and the use of other instruments like piano and strings is highly effective in places, like Forever The Optimist which has significant string input that shimmers sound wise,
I think you can get glimpses of bands like The fierce And The dead who have flirted with a similar sort of sound, Seims though do have their own sound and principles of seeking to constantly change and evolve from album to album. This of course is a highly progressive trait and one that a lot of Progressive bands fail to connect with or even adhere to, this means Seims are not especially easy to like or enjoy but you have to respect that they are not conforming and that is actually part of their reason D’tre and as such their appeal for the more open-minded Progressive Music fan.
There is also a jazziness to their music, unconventional time keeping et al,
Preoccupation is the albums longest track at 6.01 in length, this track has lots of synths in the opening section before taking a harder tone at the 1.30 mark with pummelling drums and a surging guitar line that again makes a good impression, some interesting guitar lines feature on this track, the track has a good bass line that anchors it all together before a solo guitar part is played, most eloquently too, with lots of harmony and energy to it, this is possibly my favourite track of the album and one that I feel most comfortable in listening to, the ending is dramatic and concludes what for me has been an experience with a style of music I was hitherto unfamiliar with, OK possibly not I genre or even sub genre that I am overly keen to embrace but it certainly has it moments and I can see it’s appeal for some.
Info here: www.seims.bandcamp.com
Author John Wenlock-Smith