Sepalcure: Sepalcure - Album Review

Sepalcure
Sepalcure
Rating: Grrrr

Praveen Sharma and Travis Stewart have found success with their solo work, as Braille and Machinedrum respectively, but seem to hit the mark perfectly with their work as Sepalcure. Mixing lots of different bass styles into one seamless whole, Sepalcure touches on 2-step, grime, juke, house, R&B and lends them all a surprising warmth. Using similar tricks from Burial, blocky beats, atmospheric synths, and manipulated vocal snippets, Sepalcure make sort of a counterpart to landmarks like Untrue, using the samples more for emotionally cathartic release, rather than emotional introspection. Not to say this album is a "happy" record, it is sufficient moody in parts, but it does, through use of analogue equipment, provide more warmth and feeling.

Song's like "The One" take a clippy, 2-step/garage beat and a simple vocal clip singing "You are the one" and turn in into a euphoric dance track.



"Eternally Yours" manipulates and twists its sample almost into unrecognizable sounds, the juke beat getting more and more frenetic.



Somehow, Sepalcure was able to clear a sample of The Who's "See Me, Feel Me," stretching it over the muted beats and acoustic guitars and atmospherics of "See Me Feel Me."



Sepalcure tend to straddle the line between UK bass music (the more esoteric side and not the intense wobbly bass of American leaning bass music) and IDM, more at home along acts like Mount Kimbie, Burial, and Scuba. Unlike those acts, Sepalcure seem to be influenced more by the dance floor, and while this record isn't exactly filled with dance floor bangers, you can definitely feel how they would work in a large, cavernous space. First single "Pencil Pimp" has an insistent 2-step beat and rumbling, subterranean bass, that in the hands of the right remixer could be a huge dance floor smash.



"Carrot Man" winds up rising chords of synths over skittering beats.



"Breezin" elevates its twisted sample into a euphoria-inducing high:



There are also several moodier tracks that give the record some nice depth and breadth; like the dub heavy "Yuh Nuh See,"



and rain-drizzled closer "Outside."



Sepalcure was a very pleasant late year find for me. Usually at this time of year, I am hurting to find anything new to review, and more to the point, anything new that is good. Although they reference a hundred different EDM genres over the course of the record, and sometimes within the same song, there is a nice cohesiveness that flows through the record, and makes it one of the best electronic releases of the year.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.