The Sea and Cake: COD/SD etc. etc.

Yeah, that second advance single off Comma convinced me to just bite and bullet and preorder it--looking fwd to its release.

the bullet rather, ha

Yeah this is sounding rather exciting! Tbf I did miss both aforementioned electronic ep's, so this is new to me.

WE WANT WHAT'S HOLY NOW

sam's new album has been postponed until 11 september. curses.

ok but my q is: when will we get another archer prewitt album??

fr, wilderness is a masterpiece.

fun fact: when i saw ts+c live i told archer i loved him in a quiet between song moment. he picked up his guinness, tipped it in my direction, and winked as he had a gulp. was p cool.

yeah some of the earlier records are hit/miss for me but Wilderness is a chilled-out melancholia classic

Always wished S&C would do an album where Sam and Archer traded off a bit more.

Sam is great, but he kind of sings the same melody in at least 75% of their songs.

always thought if Wilderness had come out a little later it would have made more of a splash, well-executed MOR stuff was not as well regarded at the time, I don't think

I'm thinking of stuff like Kurt Vile as a comparison point

i may regret saying this later, but i think on most days that wilderness is the best thing that anybody associated with the sea and cake ever did.

It may not be "better" than peak S&C but it's the one I revisit the most often, especially in the fall.

I was more into White Sky and Three at the time but agree that Archer's solo stuff is underrated.

I need to revisit. I remember Three sounding nice but a little TOO airy and lush for its own good

three is hit and miss, but it's for sure got a few big hitters (especially 'the race').

i actually think gerroa songs, while not my favorite, is the one i go back to most often. just something about it that's very warm and unique. it's fairly short too, which makes for an easy listen.

got a shipment notification on friday for the new record. it's on the way. oh yeah!

also, sam has created a second instagram profile specifically for the purpose of posting his modular synth doodles. it's very nice whenever it pops up on my feed: https://www.instagram.com/prekopcomma

Wow that's beautiful, followed.

Prekop has always been my #1 celebrity crush fwiw

got common in the mail yesterday. only one listen so far, but it's fucking great. maybe my favorite of his modular synth albums so far.

whoops, that's comma sorry

so listening again this morning, one thing sticks out very prominently and that's that i've always figured sam was really into krautrock — but comma is just so reminiscent of mid-70s cluster. and in the best way possible. man it's good.

"All The Photos" always reminded me of CAN. Sam's vocals on it give me a big Michael Karoli vibe.

Third listen in a row this morning and the same thought keeps coming to me: this is the exact kind of music I needed right now. Respectful of the past, but simultaneously using those ideas to offer some very unique thoughts. And gorgeous. . . oh my, how gorgeous this music is.

Absolutely agreed, Moodles! When I saw the Sea and Cake live, some guy shouted out between songs, "Play NEU!" and Sam cracked a grin. Random memory.

Thanks for the head's up Austin! His s/t and 'Who's Your New Professor' are still faves in my household, but I somehow never checked 'Old Punch Card' and 'Republic', which makes it all the more interesting to see how he's broadened his scope. Lovely sound palette and great kraut chugging, though I do miss his vox (I'm on the third track).

glad you're digging it, le bat!

one thing i was thinking about yesterday was that he's done three of these "official"* modular synth solo albums now and all three have completely different vibes. first one's completely schizo and has a wider palette than the others. second one's got two distinct parts but, a really exploratory mood. and then this new one has a very sustained, competent vibe. just kind of cool the amount of variety to be found.

*he has a few super limited things in the instrumental modular synth vein, but they were limited things and, idk, don't feel like they "count" or smthg

sam reacts to the pfork score on his new record lol

https://i.imgur.com/Id9mAmj.jpg

I'd never heard the S/T debut before so I'm playing it right now. Was thinking, "okay this is pretty good" just before I hit the stretch of "Showboat Angel" and "So Long to the Captain" and it was instantly upgraded to, "holy shit this is great!"

yeah it's uneven but I'd say 2 of their 3 best tracks are there

always thought Sam had a little Malkmus affectation going there on a vocals for a bit

Yes! I almost mentioned that myself, it was especially apparent on those two songs.

when i saw them and they played 'jacking the ball', sam introduced it with, "here's a song about grapes."

; )

never noticed how indebted these guys are to Krautrock before. "The Transaction" has the same guitar riff as "Moonshake" and "Four Corners" is basically "Fur Immer" (at least before the vocals come in)

I get strong CAN vibes from Oui. Sam's singing on "All The Photos" has always reminded me of Michael Karoli.

For sure--would esp recommend The Moonlight Butterfly mini-album from 2011 since I remember it leaning towards that side of their sensibilities

funny i never listened to them before but a couple tracks of theirs came up recently as i was trawling random spotify playlists of modern krautrock-y sounds. any other kraut-indebted releases of theirs recommended?

Their music is kind of "you got krautrock in my bossa nova! you got bossa nova in my krautrock!" Except, you know, not really either of those things.

Totally.
Instrumental/vocal-less Sam Prekop solo stuff would also be recommended due to all the modular-synth kosmische-iness of it (Old Punch Card for pure Raymond Scott-ish/Nuno Canavarro-y abstraction, Comma for beat-based sequences, The Republic for a mix of the two AFAIR?)

More Sam Prekop

https://longformeditions.bandcamp.com/track/spelling

new ep!!

https://samprekop.bandcamp.com/album/in-away

one time when I was in a dentist waiting room I heard a song which had a very similar drum pattern to "One Bedroom". it sounds like they sampled it. anyone know what it might have been?

"Andy Day" is so cool. it captures everything good about Oui in 5 minutes. sucks that Claridge couldn't play on this but it does give the album a slightly different sound which is good for them

ILX is the only message board on the planet where I can stop this kind of observation: Nassau sounds like Crazy Rhythms Feelies trying to play Good Earth songs

Agreed about Any Day. Still undeniably them, but their base standard is quality so it always sounds great when it's on. Here's to hoping there's still more to come.

I wasn't totally crazy on the early records (I didn't hear them until Oui), but the more I've revisited them over the years, the better those first two get. When you consider some of Sam's stuff in Shrimp Boat, that's a pretty good assessment I'd say. Very appropriate comparison and I totally get what you mean.

RE: Your previous question about a possible sample. Don't know it, but curious. That's a pretty distinct rhythm too. I'd certainly recognize it in the wild.

also Any Day has a fantastic closing track which is something they tend to uh...not usually have

for me The Biz is the one, though mostly for sentimental value. it was the first one I discovered (by accident, I was searching for Cake and someone mistitled the MP3), I was like 16, and I dug it immensely. on relisten the first album is definitely the special one. it's so breezy and chill, it's like they're trying to sing you to sleep. not in the way some of their other stuff does either.

sam prekop: "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THAT WE WON'T STOP I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THAT WE DON'T STOP."

(nothing to do with the incoming mcentire collab; it's another 20+ minute synth sesh. beats and all. i like it, of course.)

One really nice moment in their catalogue : the part in “The Argument” where Prekop sings “40 days till we rest again” and then in the background mumbles “sit tight y’all”

thinkin about an old friend of mine. we were roommates for a little while. he was really into Deftones, nu-metal, and dubstep. in fact that was pretty much all he liked as far as I could tell. one day he told me he took some of my burned CDs off the computer desk and was really digging one of them in particular. said it was playing in his car for weeks on end. I found out it was The Biz and now every time I listen to it (like now) I can't help but wonder what it was he liked about it so much. I mean it's a great album but man our tastes were not compatible AT ALL