ARTIST...: Sergeant
TITLE....: Sergeant
YEAR.....: 2023
LABEL....: Stroom
CAT.NO...: STRLP-067
GENRE....: Indie
TIME.....: 37:21
SIZE.....: 85.67 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2023/05/16
WEBSITE..: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/sergeant
TRACKLIST
01) (03:34) Seduced by Each and Every Shiny Object I Became an Infant in a Sea of Glance
02) (03:37) To What Human Product Precisely Are You Devoting So Much Ingenuity
03) (05:13) This Song Emanates From the Common Man Claiming His Right to Poetry
04) (03:18) Not Sensing the World, I Should Forget itÆs Existence and Be Forgotten by Those Who Live in it
05) (05:11) This Life Can Not Be All They Swear, For How Unpleasant of it Were
06) (05:15) Soon The Tears in My Eyes Will Be Blinding and Blessing at the Same Time
07) (02:55) Bodies Pressed Against Small Platforms in Institutionally Resolved Postures
08) (05:08) I Will Allow Myself This World Whose Wear and Tear Is Without Cure
09) (03:10) The Annoying Got Interesting Because the Interesting Got Annoying
Sergeant is the avant-pop band of composing cineast Benjamin Cools and search-singing
actor Ferre Marnef. For a long time they only burst out exclusively on stage, but now
they have gathered their sampled selves at the abyss of pop music anyway. The songs
on the record sound like a "date gone wrong" between post-punk and krautrock, but
mostly like the kind of indie rock that Warp thought was cool for a very brief time
in the 00s. Through the Paris of the 70s (Gainsbourg!) and the industrial Ruhr, they
take you on a trip brimming with Dadaist collages and abstract punk. Their self-
titled debut is released by the Ostend-based experimental music label STROOM, run by
Ziggy Devriendt (aka Nosedrip).
For this record, the musicians sampled themselves - Sergeant calls that method DJ
Shadow in reverse. From their archive, they drew a mountain of analog loops, which
they then meticulously montaged into nine poetic songs. In the tracks, 1 Fender
Mustang, 1 Microkorg, 1 Rdr Rhythm DR-670 and dozens of flutes are ground through
effects, processors and DIY recording techniques. For Cools and Marnef, making music
is getting sound layers and textures moving. Like editing a movie, Sergeant cuts the
sonic scenes into one.
Sergeant's home base is Brussels, the metropolis on the verge of bankruptcy, and that
is audible in the density and rushy contrasts on this pop record. Cools and Marnef
operate in the world of film, theater and music. Previously they have been involved
with bands such as Soldier's Heart and De Nooit Moede, and in theater they share a
history with Tibaldus, Desnor, Bosse Provoost, Ezra Veldhuis, Buren.
The mixing is the work of the Antwerp godchild Milan Warmoeskerken (Milan W.) who
produced other people's music for the first time. With his eye for detail and
balance, he created a deeper layer in Sergeant's music.
Released May 10, 2023
Benjamin Cools: Structuralism, Synth, Guitar, Space & Time
Ferre Marnef: Word Of Mouth, Groove, Flutes & Semantics
Jasper Segers & Geraldine Vanspauwen: Bass
Milan W.: Additional Sorcery
Ziggy Devriendt: Bed, Power & Money
Produced by Sergeant
Mixed by Milan W.
Mastered by Mathieu Savenay
Optics by Joris Kritis
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