Seams to release Tourist/Sleeper Double EP on Full Time Hobby
After the news of the signing we are really pleased to announce that Seams is to release double EP Tourist/Sleeper on 30th July 2012. Out on limited edition 12” vinyl (with download code) + digitally.
Though the unprecedented ease of access to music in the 21st century sometimes yields buzz artists hyped beyond their level of development, the positive flip side of it is that it can, just on occasion, throw forth an unknown but fully formed gem into the public consciousness.
Hampshire-via-Berlin based producer Seams is one such gem. One of a new breed of bedroom electronica artists well on their way to stepping outside their four walls and dominating the UK nightlife scene, Seams - real name James Welch - has just recently signed to Full Time Hobby; this double EP release of Tourist (previously released via Pictures) and new material Sleeper is his first offering under their moniker.
Like much of the finest programmed sounds and syncopated rhythms currently bleeding out into the country, Seams' work manages to evoke imagery of a time, place - or maybe something as specific as an action; as he admits himself "My personal favourite place to listen to stuff is in headphones cycling really fast," and across the eight tracks that make up the two releases, it does feel like music for being on-the-go to, a real sense of drive resolutely underpinning anything more tonally expansive.
What's apparent too is the conciseness of the tracks; each element is allowed its own space in which to express itself, with edges meeting and different sounds relating to each other, but they rarely fully merge or get in the way of one another. It's an unsurprising trait given what made Welch choose the name Seams. "I've always enjoyed working out how music is made and finding stuff that wears its constituent elements and construction on its sleeve," he explains. "Seams to me are the points where these elements join. If you find these, you can work out what it's made of."
Tourist and Sleeper are both very different beasts, written at different times and in different environments; in fact to team them up back-to-back is to clearly convey the progression Seams has made both in his creative journey and, to open it up wider, his life as a while.
"'Tourist' was made when I was living in Berlin, it's a summer record, light and airy, lots of field recordings," he reflects, "'Sleeper' was made almost a year later back home in my bedroom in Hampshire, with the aim being to make it to sound more personal, and a bit darker and claustrophobic." Admitting that he was pretty bummed out to return home after a stint working around the hub of European electronic music, Sleeper is consequently the sound of the come down, perhaps, the introversion that inevitably follows a time surrounded by new people, sights and sounds and the difference between the bright exoticism of Berlin's nightlife and his more humble home surroundings.
Seams’ working processes have evolved too; at first he adopted a methodical approach, cutting up bits of audio and placing them together like jigsaw pieces on his laptop, an approach that explains some the wonderful intricacy that goes on within the layers of his dusk electronica. Yet as he progressed and moved onto Sleeper he opened up more, adding synths, including live improvisations and leaving more to chance, something that gives his newer work a greater sense of intimacy.
It's an approach he's developed live now, too, moving away from just the laptop to now revolve around a Novation Launchpad, used to triggered different samples and patterns, and then sending them to various effects, some of which are self-created. "It's quite simple," he insists, "but there's still plenty of room to improvise, and make mistakes, which is what makes playing live so much fun."
This burgeoning live show has led to support dates with I Break Horses on their first UK tour, as well as slots with Gold Panda and Three Trapped Tigers, among others; he's also been picked by seminal avant-garde trip-hop group Portishead to appear on a specially curated bill in Barcelona on June 22nd . His tracks, meanwhile, are now staples among the likes of James Holden's DJ sets - endorsement indeed - and yet when dropped they felt as though they'd always belonged there, so established does his work already feel. Artists can spend years trying to attain a semblance of completion, with Seams you sense the full package is already there.
22nd Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz, With Portishead
11th Hamburg, DE – Dockville Festival
http://soundcloud.com/seams
http://seams.bandcamp.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/iamseams
http://www.facebook.com/seamsmusic
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