sBACH
sBACH (suicide squeeze)
Spencer Seim, the man/creature/troglodyte who serves as the feral axe shredder of Hella and the skins man of The Advantage, will be dropping his new album on August 19th under the nom de guerre of sBACH entitled "sBACH" on Suicide Squeeze. sBACH by sBACH band is a frenetic mnge akin to the collective sights, sounds and sugar rushes in the heads of an entire elementary school being locked into a Chuck E. Cheese franchise while having to subside on an all you can eat buffet of Fun Dip and Pixie Stix as the animatronic band dishes out phosphorescent doom riffs while running amok with the blips and bleeps. Seim is the master of playing his instruments in just the right way enabling a whole frequency of sounds.
Taking cues from the choppy spazz-math of Hella and the 8 bit Nintendo cacophony of The Advantage, Seim utilizes the trademarks steez and proclivities of his two musical ventures to create a new one which morphs into a kitschy, stoner rock fueled archfiend chock full of bastardized jazz rhythms and chicken scratch electronica. With the grating jingles and chimes of an explosion at a pinball machine factory and the caffeinated scour of just about any song that features Seim's vivid musical talent, sBACH will fray the senses and leave you begging for more.
After mastering the 8-bit rhythms of NES games with The Advantage and complimenting Zach Hill with quirky yet adept guitar riffs in Hella, Spencer Seim appears to exemplify a satisfied musician. On his latest solo project, sBACH (Suicide Squeeze), Seim once again delves into the far corners of sonic exploration. Despite no particular fondness for Star Trek, Seim describes sBACH as what, "Vulcan classical music, sounds like [to] me." And although that description may conjure up unwanted images of a Shatner/Nimoy duet, the sound is something equally strange and out of this world.
With sBACH, Seim seems to give a nod to his past projects. As far a melodic instrumentation goes, sBACH and Hella are essentially the same: spatial fuzzed out guitar melodies layered over eccentric math-rock inspired phrasing. The blocked-in, 8-bit rhythms of The Advantage have given way to more grandiose syncopation and unknown meter signatures, which better demonstrate Seim's instinctive knack behind the sticks. "I would say that my drumming changes song to song for any band I am in," says Seim, "I like beats that are exciting and new to me, but also enjoy the sound of simplicity and the contrast between the two."
The end product of Seim's Hella-Advantage hybrid is captured on sBACH's self-titled August debut; a record that sounds like Mario on a sugar high, surrounded by Pixie Stix. Wrought with consistent tones, cartoonish alacrity, and no lyrical content, sBACH could easily be substituted with an old Nintendo score or at the very least, a soundtrack to a manic episode. But perhaps the psychosis radiating from the record has some correlation with the album's unique inspiration. "On song 4 [of sBACH] I kept having this recurring dream of this girl playing this awesome guitar part and every morning I'd wake up and try to play it," Seim explains. Track 4's ominous guitar riff remains proof that one day he remembered how to play it.
But with the excitement of the new release, especially Seim's first solo record, on which he played every instrument and wrote every song—one daunting question remains: will sBACH ever evolve from a side-project to a main state of Seim's career? Or will it be just another project in an already accomplished musician's discography? Seim, confidently replies, "It is something I will continue all of my life. sBACH is not a one off record thing."
sBACH Myspace
Suicide Squeeze Records
Contact > gee{at}littlebig.org.uk
