For its 50th release, New Atlantis Records is proud to present guitar wizard Brandon Seabrook's new large ensemble recording, Die Trommel Fatale. Conceived as a poly-rhythmic exploration of the dark side of the drum, Die Trommel Fatale layers dichotomous drummers against cello, bass, electronics, voice and guitar. By dispensing with cymbals, the band highlights the primal propulsion of the drums, contrasting the body and resonance of the dual kits with dizzying ensemble passages and transcendent solo experimentation. Cinematic textures emerge from the bone-shaking collision of drums, strings and guttural shrieks under the command of Seabrook's prodigiously dynamic guitar.
With Sylphid Vitalizers, Brandon Seabrook's 2014 solo debut for New Atlantis, Brandon conjured "dissonant guitar army textures and explosions and mind-blowing prog-rock complexities—all at mind-numbing breakneck speed" (Vice), layering "a mind-altering wall of ecstatic riffage and textures backed by the head hammering death blows of a vintage drum machine" (Spin). By overdubbing bowed guitars, banjo, and electric guitar, the work marked a new level of orchestralesque dissonant guitar work, generating a tension which "resembles that of string ensembles stretched to the absolute snapping point" (Tiny Mix Tapes).
In the context of his previous work, Die Trommel Fatale finds Seabrook bringing his singular compositional and instrumental vernacular and his fetish for electronic timbres and stagger-stepped rhythms to bear on a group of wildly capable players who augment rather than dilute his vision and dissonant charisma. Marika Hughes (cello), Chuck Bettis (vocals/electronics), Eivind Opsvik (bass), and drummers Sam Ospovat and Dave Treut represent a fantastic new alignment in dissonance and resonance, realizing a group sound in total congruency with Seabrook's manically progressive vision.
1. Clangorous Vistas 2:30
2. Emotional Cleavage 5:58
3. Abccessed Pettifogger 3:18
4. Shamans Never R.S.V.P. 6:56
5. Litany of Turncoats 0:55
6. The Greatest Bile Pt. 1 4:48
7. The Greatest Bile Pt. 2 5:38
8. Rhizomatic 3:54
9. Quickstep Grotesquerie 3:49
10. Beautiful Flowers 2:41
Chuck Bettis throat, electronics
Dave Treut drums
Sam Ospovat drums
Markia Hughes cello
Eivind Opsvik bass
