Sam Prekop
Open Close
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The Sea and Cake のボーカル兼ギタリスト
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Prekop, best known as the vocalist and guitarist for Chicago indie rock stalwarts The Sea and Cake, has never shown much interest in riding any kind of trend. His music has always been forward-thinking and bustling with ideas, but also marked by a languid, unhurried energy, and there’s never been any other band with that kind of sound. As interesting as it is that Prekop’s shift in trajectory has coincided with the synthfluenzer era, all of the work he’s done within the medium has been consistent with his creative ethos. His lethargic sensibilities are still present, and it makes more sense than one might expect that parts of his latest album Open Close came out of preparing for live collaborations with Laraaji. While the record isn’t exactly blissed-out chakra bait, it does feel very content with itself.
The techno influences that marked previous releases such as Comma and his John McEntire duo Sons Of are very much still present on Open Close, but the record feels much more pulse-driven than beat-driven, and lacks the bright, colorful world-in-motion feeling those records evoke. In comparison, Open Close sometimes feels more closed than open, a flatter landscape of white and gray than sun-speckled blue and green. The music expresses no underlying desire to do anything particularly ambitious or against the grain, and even by the standards of Prekop’s perennially chill disposition, Open Close is remarkably sedate.