VONDELPARK

SEABED (R&S)

14/20

It’s justifiable at this point to posit that we don’t really need another band combining brittle indie with YouTube-hopping snatches of R’n’B, and then Seabed – thanks to its pretty, glimmering palate of heard-through-floorboards piano, crisp percussion, taut slicks of guitar and Lewis Rainsbury’s delicate, quavering voice – comes along, and you have to reconsider your stance. There’s nothing startlingly original here. It’s indie rock for the versed in Rinse.fm generation, but there’s a good deal of pleasure to be found in the record’s aptly undulating, sub-aquatic feel and its occasional trips up to the surface. See the half-step and widescreen Balaeric twang of Quest, the phased waft of harmonica on California Analog Dream, or the end of the night UKG vocal sample of Bananas (On my Biceps), which sound all the sweeter for their surrounding submergence. Seabed isn’t perfect, but in terms of capturing a post-club sense of slightly-distanced intimacy, it does the job well. While we don’t need every gaggle of boys clutching guitars professing their love for early-00s slowjams, it’s good to be reminded that every so often, the feminine weight of R’n’B can be extrapolated and interpreted in other genres to good effect.

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Words: Josh Baines