Seabrook Power Plant – Seabrook Power Plant – Loyal Label LLCD006, 39:18 ***1/2:
(Brandon Seabrook – guitar, banjo; Tom Blancarte – bass; Jared Seabrook – drums)
Trying to define the New York City power trio Seabrook Power Plant is head scratching. On their debut release the fiercely assertive group melds punk aggression with elements of folk, avant-jazz, heavy metal, and alternative rock. The line-up is equaling intriguing, since leader Brandon Seabrook centers the music on tenor banjo along with some electric guitar, with bass and drums holding down the bottom end. If John Zorn had picked up the banjo or Béla Fleck had turned to AC/DC as an influence, Seabrook Power Plant might be one result.
The opening track, "Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend," is an audacious start. Named after the famous guitar-smashing point man for The Who, the song is a forcible enterprise. Seabrook’s banjo sounds like something out of another dimension, the four strings generating a dominate riff stuck on overdrive, while Seabrook’s brother Jared hits his drums hard and mean and Tom Blancarte’s bass grumbles and fumes. The barrage cracks apart as quickly as it begins when the trio changes gears to an avant-garde or free jazz progression that would work well alongside the aforementioned Zorn’s wildest skronk moments.
Next up is the contorted "Ho Chi Minh Trail." The multi-arrayed piece includes some knotty finger picking and droning banjo arpeggios that approach ear-rending atonality. The banjo also often has a strong percussive tone, which is why the instrument appeals to Seabrook: there is little sustain and the way he strikes the strings provides a drum-like cadence. Meanwhile, Jared Seabrook contributes a stripped-down beat closer to hard rock than anything else, while Blancarte’s thick bass tone furnishes a sturdy harmonic footing and his bowing on the bass strings imparts an East Asian modality to the contentious cut, which abruptly terminates like an unexpected slap to the cheek.
On the other hand, the threesome crashes headlong into neo-progressive rock territory on "Base Load Plant Theme," one of the few numbers where Seabrook concentrates on his six-string guitar, merrily spinning from abrasive alt-metal to stewed punk-funk, akin to Eddie Van Halen dueling with Les Claypool.
Seabrook is a remarkably singular performer and propels his fervent musical dramatics nearly to the breaking point on the angular "Waltz of the Nuke Workers," which counters any common convention. The dense tune commences with a falsely melodious electric guitar chord, and then ascends into the province of impertinent punk-psychedelia similar to The Minutemen. Mixed and matched auditory fragments flow into each other, with Seabrook’s minimalistic guitar affecting an ominous and automated expression.
At almost eight minutes in length, "Occupation 1977" is the record’s longest exploration. Here, each player assumes solo space to ruminate, agitate, or inundate as desired or needed. During one interval Seabrook strums so firmly and rapidly he produces a dervish clamor against which his band mates dispense fitfully aligned rhythms that punctuate Seabrook’s caustic effects. In another break Blancarte tensely saws away and then thuds heavily, as Seabrook layers ambient electric guitar. The saga closes with a viscous and quagmired conclusion.
The trio gets even more bottom-weighted on "I Don’t Feel So Good," where once again Seabrook’s hell-bent guitar takes the center stage. The band spawns a sludgy Melvins-ish, slow-moving steamroller that is the album’s most oppressive and disfigured stomach clencher, a grinding vessel that crushes all semblance of accessibility. It will clear the room of unwanted guests but won’t clear your brain of a headache. A comparable feeling of gloom and ruin permeates the aptly titled "Doomsday Shroud," a close-binding conception that completes the song set with a sepulchral persistence. Listening to this is like being nailed to the wall in a straitjacket while a Black Sabbath 45 RPM single is played at 33 RPM. For some, though, this may be just the late-night, mind-numbing experience necessary to compensate for a long work week. It is less painful than answering phones all day at a customer service desk.
Seabrook Power Plant plays visceral music that knows no boundaries. It takes a specific kind of listener to follow and appreciate where the trio goes, but for those who welcome journeys with doses of experimental eclecticism, Seabrook Power Plant is worth discovering.
TrackList:
1. Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend
2. Ho Chi Minh Trail
3. Waltz of the Nuke Workers
4. Occupation 1977
5. Base Load Plant Theme
6. I Don’t Feel So Good
7. Feedlot Polio
8. Doomsday Shroud
— Doug Simpson
