Atmospheric Alternative Rock played and recorded with a light touch. At its peak, it’s like Television jamming with Kraftwerk. At its lowest, it burbles away happily in the background.
The Sea And Cake play their guitars in that pearly, finicky 70’s style perfected by New York art punks Television. No droning notes, no chords. The band also uses electronics, but not like somebody would do it who comes from a Dance background. No, theirs is a rock approach to rhythm machines and sounds that owes a lot to German bands of the early 70’s. Think Can or Harmonia.
Watch The Sea And Cake Video For ‘Weekend’
‘CMS Sequence’ is a neat slice of vintage electronica that could have come straight out of the tape archives of Harmonia or early Kraftwerk. ‘Weekend’ builds a shimmering Electro Funk groove that sounds just on the money for fans of Optimo, Idjut Boys or Too Many DJs.
This is the Chicago bands eight album to date. At this stage, all the bits just slot into their place and the guitar work is super slick. ‘Aerial’ and ‘On The Letter’ are super elastic, mellow guitar jams. The sound of Television floating on lilos in a L.A. pool. I know, that probably never happened. Just picture the scene and its soundtrack.
Listen Here To ‘Car Alarm’!
US Readers Can Download From The Player Below.
Quiet, soft guitars dominate the remainder of the album. Sometimes flavoured with a bit of cod Reggae, 10CC style (’Down In The City’), sometimes spiced up with a Tom Verlaine style guitar solo (’Window Sills’).
Only one track breaks with the formula. The quirky ‘Also Ran’ sounds like a busker crashing the recording sessions.
In a nutshell, I love the sound Sea And Cake captured on ‘Car Alarm’. There are four, maybe five strong songs on the album. If I have any reservations, it’s that large chunks of ‘Car Alarm’ are so ethereal they just fade into the background.
If you like the July Skies or any of the bands mentioned above, you’ll enjoy this. If softly, softly doesn’t do it for you then stay well clear.
We say: 
UK and Ireland readers can download ‘Car Alarm’ here from iTunes UK.
US Readers - Buy The Sea And Cake’s New Album On CD Here!
UK And Ireland Readers - Buy ‘Car Alarm’ On CD Here!
