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No Sleep Demon opens with a rather plodding drum beat and mundane vocals on Smoke, then the chorus comes in and takes the track into a much more interesting direction with some unusual harmonious breaks. The album that follows is a reasonably well balanced mix of ballads, dance floor fillers and atmospheric pieces but does suffer slightly as coming across as a bit 'calculated'. It appears to try extremely hard to sound the way it does and yet that sound isn't unique to Seabound. If you are a follower of Dependent fashion and you want more of the same then this is definately for you. That isn't to say that this isn't without it's own interest - far from it, in fact. There are some decidedly moving and stimulating pieces included here. Covenant 's Eskil Simmonson produced and mixed Travelling (MCD released in Mar '01), but you'd do well to spot any significant difference to the rest of the album. A middleing track, again it isn't until the chorus comes in that Seabound really distinguish themselves. Exorcize is the first track that really comes together and what's more it contains the priceless sample of a laconic American woman telling us that " Jesus Christ died with a hard-on." But it isn't until we get to the fourth track, Point Break, that things really begin to get interesting. This is a brilliant chilled-out piece slightly reminiscent of Forma Tadre but more uplifting - this has moments of real beauty. (It also contains an obscure sample from What Noise by Kissing The Pink!). Torn, Dunnocks, (the MCD released in Aug'01) Hooked and Coward return to the mid-tempo dark beat stuff. The penultimate Avalost is the only instrumental and has more in common with Point Break that anything else here. A nice build and more of those lighter touches. Meanwhile, the final Rome On Fire distinguishes itself with its upfront and proficient vocals. No Sleep Demon is a strong first album, in fact, it has the strange effect of seeming better than it actually is. -Joe 05/03 More at: |
: Just as their top artist (Covenant) left them for bigger things, the German electronic label Dependent released the debut album by newcomers Seabound in 2001. This German duo slot neatly into the Dependent roster - sharing some similarities with Covenant and stable mates VNV Nation. With the genre press going berzerk over the so-called 'future pop' tag at the moment, there couldn't have been a better time for Seabound to launch themselves.