In addition to releasing eight albums with the Sea and Cake, frontman Sam Prekop has also found time to release two solo albums and make forays into both painting and photography. On September 7, the multitalented artist will release his third album, Old Punch Card.
In a press release, Prekop said, "This record is pretty much unlike anything else I've done." It was reportedly inspired by "early music concrete and electronic music, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Nuno Canavarro, Raymond Scott, David Behrman, and free improvisation."
Pekop took a structure-less approach to songwriting, resulting in "a beautifully noisy, jagged yet stately album of synthesizer music." There are no vocals or beats and only one of the nine tracks features a guitar; instead, most of the sounds were created with a modular synthesizer.
With the focus on texture and dynamics rather than rhythm or lyrics, the tracks took "a travelogue form, all of them starting somewhere only to end somewhere else entirely." The collection was recorded at home and composed by piecing together snippets of interesting synth noise.
If all this sounds a bit confusing, Prekop says the closest soundalike is the abstract intro to the Sea and Cake's cover of "Sound and Vision" by David Bowie. Listen to it in the embedded video below.
The Sea and Cake will be hitting the road this fall for a Canada-friendly tour with Broken Social Scene. The dates are below the tracklist.
Old Punch Card:
1. "Old Punch Card"
2. "Array Wicket"
3. "Knitting Needles"
4. "Brambles"
5. "Tell Work"
6. "November September"
7. "A Places"
8. "Lazy House"
9. "The Silhouettes"
Sea and Cake tour dates:
9/13 Washington, DC - The Warner Theatre *
9/14 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts *
9/17 Boston, MA - House of Blues *
9/18 New York, NY - Rumsey Playfield *
9/20 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
9/21 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater *
9/22 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
9/24 Ithaca, NY - State Theater *
9/25 Buffalo, NY - Town Hall *
10/2 Chicago, IL - Rivera Theatre *
10/3 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater *
10/4 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10/6 Winnipeg, MB - Burton Cummings Theatre *
10/7 Saskatoon, SK - The Odeon Event Centre *
10/8 Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall *
10/9 Edmonton, AB - Winspear Centre *
10/10 Kelowna, BC - Community Theatre *
10/12 Victoria, BC - Element *
10/13 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom *
10/15 Seattle, WA - Paramout Theatre *
10/16 Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom *
10/17 San Francisco, BC - Treasure Island Music Festival *
10/19 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
In a press release, Prekop said, "This record is pretty much unlike anything else I've done." It was reportedly inspired by "early music concrete and electronic music, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Nuno Canavarro, Raymond Scott, David Behrman, and free improvisation."
Pekop took a structure-less approach to songwriting, resulting in "a beautifully noisy, jagged yet stately album of synthesizer music." There are no vocals or beats and only one of the nine tracks features a guitar; instead, most of the sounds were created with a modular synthesizer.
With the focus on texture and dynamics rather than rhythm or lyrics, the tracks took "a travelogue form, all of them starting somewhere only to end somewhere else entirely." The collection was recorded at home and composed by piecing together snippets of interesting synth noise.
If all this sounds a bit confusing, Prekop says the closest soundalike is the abstract intro to the Sea and Cake's cover of "Sound and Vision" by David Bowie. Listen to it in the embedded video below.
The Sea and Cake will be hitting the road this fall for a Canada-friendly tour with Broken Social Scene. The dates are below the tracklist.
Old Punch Card:
1. "Old Punch Card"
2. "Array Wicket"
3. "Knitting Needles"
4. "Brambles"
5. "Tell Work"
6. "November September"
7. "A Places"
8. "Lazy House"
9. "The Silhouettes"
Sea and Cake tour dates:
9/13 Washington, DC - The Warner Theatre *
9/14 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts *
9/17 Boston, MA - House of Blues *
9/18 New York, NY - Rumsey Playfield *
9/20 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *
9/21 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater *
9/22 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
9/24 Ithaca, NY - State Theater *
9/25 Buffalo, NY - Town Hall *
10/2 Chicago, IL - Rivera Theatre *
10/3 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater *
10/4 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10/6 Winnipeg, MB - Burton Cummings Theatre *
10/7 Saskatoon, SK - The Odeon Event Centre *
10/8 Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall *
10/9 Edmonton, AB - Winspear Centre *
10/10 Kelowna, BC - Community Theatre *
10/12 Victoria, BC - Element *
10/13 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom *
10/15 Seattle, WA - Paramout Theatre *
10/16 Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom *
10/17 San Francisco, BC - Treasure Island Music Festival *
10/19 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
