Keith Seatman
Disjointed Oddities and Other Such Things EP (Vol. 2)
U.K. KSA RECORDS KSA 009 C.D.E.P. (2023)
…being another pretty suitable candidate for membership of “The Haunted Generation”, an occasional full-pager in The Fortean Times (‘the monthly mag of Strange Phenomena’). Its focus linking contempo left-of-centre electronica to a bizarro seventies’ teenworld where the ultra-sinister and down at heel figure of Hartley Hare presided over a time/place where animal puppets cavorted around on fly agaric mushrooms and where graphically portrayed child fatalities on Public Information films (involving frozen ponds and kites vs pylons) were the accepted norm. The past will always remain a foreign country and Keith Seatman (founder member of Portsmuthian John Peel favourites The Psylons) has decanted some its off-kilter tendencies into own ‘spirographed’ and ‘view-mastered’ sound world. Allegiances over a good decade or more have obviously shifted from the moody guitar-driven post-punk concerns of his former band to a more Ghost Boxed or, Polytechnic Youthed set of aesthetics. And on this, his third cdep, one is quickly made aware of Keith’s painstaking approach to the techniques of layering various sound sources. The slightly creepy “Sleepy Time Rest”, where Syd’s ‘Gnome’ pays us a return visit after a fifty year doze, and the Kluster-like strains of “A Fine Hurrah” being fine examples of his craft.
I’d stick my neck out and state that Keith projects such an easy-going artistic temperament that if ever the need arose to use gear from the dark ages such as splicing tape and razorblades, he’d soon get down to the business in hand, without so much as a hint of discontent. Disjointed Oddities… shouldn’t really be perceived as a mere trailer to the main feature. The five cuts stand up perfectly well by themselves and augur well for any future full lengthers, usually found on the ‘Castles in Spain’ imprint, his more regular haunt for recording purposes.