SebastiAn
Total
(Ed Banger Records)
SebastiAn used to be such an absorbing, enigmatic producer.
His 2005 release Smoking Kills was — funnily enough — a breath of fresh air, eschewing melody almost entirely in favour of acerbic growls and a grating fusillade of a production aesthetic. His follow up efforts, H.A.L. and Walkman, provided the same kind of grinding, adrenaline soaked thrills. It was a rapid-fire trinity that seemingly helped pave the way for the entire Ed Banger Records sound as well as the accompanying musical genus that seemed to explode around it.
All of a sudden, the masses huddled beneath the disco ball were lurching around to the abrasive industrialism and mechanical shudder of ‘maximal’. SebastiAn’s celebrated, cross-baring label mates Justice even managed to ride the resulting wave of fanaticism from total niche anonymity to sold-out world tours. But there’s very distinct a reason why SebastiAn seemed to languish in comparatively boutique obscurity – he always seemed a little bit more arcane than Justice. SebastiAn’s productions were always just that little bit more inaccessible.
Where Justice had an unforgettably anthemic mantra at the chorus of their ‘Never Be Alone’, SebastiAn shirked vocals, instead opting to distort his voices into panicked murmurs or spluttering, inhuman death rattles. While Justice flourished amidst the kind of devotion that aptly complimented their famous icon, SebastiAn became known for little more than the purposefully generic face that adorned the cover of his Ross Ross Ross E.P. It was an intriguing disjunction, the quiet mystery that enveloped the violently gnashing productions.
Fast-forward six years, and SebastiAn’s first full length release, Total, sounds like, but is less intriguing or enigmatic than his understated past. In short, it’s an anachronism; an enraged dinosaur stomping around imprudently in an era stylistically defined by subtlety and introversion. This was inevitable, considering the surprise inclusion of moments on offer. There’s not much bite left in ‘Doggg’ for example, a re-edit of a track that has been widely available in a former incarnation for a number of years. ‘Ross Ross Ross’ is similarly inexplicably re-released, having appeared (oddly enough) on the Ross Ross Ross E.P. of 2006. ‘Kindercut’, an edited version of a SebastiAn remix for Sneaky Sound System’s ‘UFO’, is a similarly befuddling addition from 2007. Unsurprisingly, there’s a frustrating sense of stagnancy lingering here.
Luckily, Total proves to be a complete misnomer. It’s neither holistic, nor a singular entirety in any sense of the word; the track list is perforated by 30 second skit-snippets, and the album oscillates pretty between two antithetical styles over its 22 song duration. There’s the warped rumble of ‘Motor’, ‘Doggg’, ‘Total’, and ‘Ross Ross Ross’, but also the robust disco sheen of single release ‘Embody’, ‘Tetra’ and ‘Arabest’. This duality provides Totals saving grace (the latter three prove the most inspired movements of the record by far), but also the destabilising influence that makes it such a largely unconvincing release.
Essentially, SebastiAn comes across here as an artist struggling to reconcile his previous work with his apparent future. He seems in flux, skittering between stylistic aesthetics, between past and present, between guttural and glam with irritating rapidity. Total is fractured on almost every level possible; there’s good and bad, old and new, progression and regression, briefness and breadth, textures both rough and smooth. In other words, as an album, and a point in this French producers career, it’s just kind of neither here nor there.
Elliott Grigg
--
(Ed's note: While Total was in fact released in June this year, this review fell through the cracks, as some do from time to time. Normally we would be loathe to print an album review months after its release, but with SebastiAn's upcoming appearance at Parklife on the horizon — as well as the quality of the review — we found it prudent to go ahead and publish it.)