Rare Seed doesn’t make an album, they create an otherworldly sonic universe. Their debut, the 41 minute odyssey Ethereal Enclave, is a masterful, though not so easily categorizable suite of post punk intensity, psychedelic dreamscapes, jazz modal shifts and hip hop rhythms coalescing into a cohesive, utterly captivating whole. The album is vast and intimate, experimental and yet deeply accessible.
The band establishes its unique territory from the hypnotic pulse of opener ‘El Niño’ which marries a late 70s experimental spirit with a sleek, futuristic sheen. Tracks flow with dreamlike logic: “Foolish Flame” seduces with an off kilter caterwauling glimpse into trickling emotional depths, like “fire seen through glass.” Bold abstraction is lightly flavoured with Middle Eastern motifs and it’s a truly transportive experience, as “Lotus Eaters” evolves into a patient, near-meditative exploration.
“Ethereal Enclave,” the title track, is exactly what it says on the tin. It makes it slow, but it makes it very atmospheric, making for a weightless, otherworldly space where structure melts into pure feeling. The band’s signature atmospheric depth is anchored by a surprisingly playful rhythmic energy, punctuated by melodic glimmer that sounds like The Beatles through a futuristic lens. The cinematic closer, “Marie Celeste (La Niña),” is a perfect coda to the journey, a song that reaches boldly, curiously and in style that tips its hat to Bowie, Pink Floyd and Radiohead while clearly charting its own path.
The creative nucleus of the band, Lex Condes (drums, vocals, guitar and sophisticated, existential, Eastern spirituality lyrics) manages to hit the ear with infectious melodies and hooks that break through the complexity of the arrangements. The fluid, virtuosic lines (whether Allman-esque fire or psychedelic distortion) are woven by guitarists Ben Parker and Connor Herring. Andrew Wise’s keyboards furnish very important classical and jazz oriented thematic texture and Matthew Maggiore’s playing of bass grounds it all with contemporary, hip hop derived precision and pulse.
More than just songs, Ethereal Enclave is an exploration of empathy, loss, confusion, acceptance and the ‘unknowable grey areas’ of modern existence. It is a shrine to the evanescent constructed with reeling guitars, warbling organs, expansive atmospheres and resounding percussion. Rare Seed has made an album of remarkable ambition and achievement, one that feels cinematic, deeply felt and sonically adventurous, also demanding exploration and promising large rewards. This is rock at its most imaginative and alive today.
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