For the first weekend of the Biden/Harris era and AT(After Trump) I thought I'd share about some amazing new rock & roll from Mexico City! They're called SEI STILL. They're my absolute fav at the moment. Have them constantly on repeat, I can't get enough!
Their sound is a modern take on Krautrock bands like Neu! and Can, and a sprinkle of New York No Wave bands, a la Television and Suicide.(They have a track on the record called Television that's incredible.) But yet it doesn't sound derivative at all. It's a fresh, propulsive, wall of sound that gets better and better after each listen.
The first track on the record, ‘El Camino’, is a driving NEU!-esque wig-out propelled by a sharp repetitive bassline so tight you can physically feel the tension building and building, refusing to let loose for a second. The band say of the song and video, “‘El Camino’ represents the group’s idea of movement, something that’s never static and is always changing, like life itself. The idea of the video came from Txema Novelo, a close friend of the band. Txema wanted to take the Nopal (a popular Mexican cactus) and use it to symbolize the “torch” of music that has been passed around generations, with all of the members taking this torch through the hands of fellow-musicians from older generations, to finally returning it to pay tribute to iconic musician “ROCKDRIGO”, one of Mexico’s first rockers.”
The video for El Camino is super cool, with the cactus imagery captured in fantastic fuzzed out black and white photography. One more thing, if you watch the video very very closely you can see Bernie Sanders sitting in his chair. Just kidding! Or am I?
The record was produced by Hugo Quezada, who the band describe as “an icon from the Mexican underground scene and a true synthesizer aficionado.” As well as the given indebtedness to bands like Can, NEU! and the minimalism movement, together, the band say that on the album they also take great inspiration from “Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’, and Dennis Hoppers' ‘Easy Rider’ (the concept of the road has always been a present image of our collective imaginary) and the aesthetics of Spanish new-wave bands like Aviador Dro and Décima Víctima.”
It's true SEI STILL is excellent driving music. So maybe on your next long drive, put these guys on, lets the sounds wash over you and be the soundtrack of your trip.
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