Seamus Cater
The Three Things
You Can Hear
NETHERLANDS Nearly
Not There Records / Annihaya Records NNTR01
LP/CD (2016)
On this, his first solo album, Seamus Cater aims to
combine “new song-writing and contemporary acoustic music drawing on revivalist
folk music and 60s minimalism as source material”. What sets him apart from practitioners
working in similar ways like Richard Dawson or Richard Youngs or Alasdair
Roberts? There’s the minimalism of
course, and the production is high quality but very spare.
As well as Fender Rhodes, the familiar junk-shop-find
1941-vintage duet concertina accompaniment abides for those who enjoyed Cater’s
last studio outing; The Anecdotes
with Viljam Nybacka. Although positioned
as a solo record, Cater is not always alone on The Three Things You Can Hear; there are also rather understated contributions
from Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke of The International Nothing, Koen
Nutters and Morten J. Olsen of The Pitch and Konzert Minimal and Johnny Chang,
also of Konzert Minimal. Han Jacobs
contributes saw. Incidentally, this
album was mastered by Jeff Carey; the man who contributed “reverb” to a piece
on The Anecdotes. There’s a crossover here for those interested
in quiet music: Berlin-based Johnny Chang is part of the Wandelweiser collective,
in fact alongside Koen Nutters, he co-curates the Wandelweiser group-based
concert series Konzert Minimal.
Despite working with what could be termed “traditional
instrumentation”, Cater is not afraid to deviate from traditional songform. His unhurried approach to his material tends
to focus the listener’s attention. His
is more than simply a considered approach; he has a deep and sympathetic
relationship with his material and the history and tradition within. His family’s musical background can be seen
as a way of determining Cater’s interests for sure. His own experiences as a young man deep
within the anti-authoritarian, transient, atmospheric, acid house culture of
the late 1980s may possibly be important; possibly not. Interestingly, he seems to have been a recognisable
figure at the time in the acid house scene – Cater has recently survived being
name-checked by The Prodigy's Keith Flint.
I have the lp version here which is housed in a great
die-cut sleeve – nice, rounded corners; very unusual –a three colour
silkscreened etelage card sleeve adorned with an image of a human head, deep in thought? There is also a
full-colour printed card bookmark inscribed by hand with a download code, plus
a gigantic A1 fold-out silkscreened/digital print lyric sheet. The vinyl is an edition of 300, although
Annihaya Records have also released the cd version in an edition of 500.
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