Weird Incantations: Sea Level’s “Race Against the Drum Machine”

Every element of Sea Level’s “Race Against the Drum Machine” feels stitched together into a really jarring patchwork. The group, split between Fukuoka and Tokyo, recently put out their debut full-length on Call And Response (get that here), and this advance peek stands as one of the more wobbly — and fun in its unsteadiness — moments on that release. Voices drift in and out of frame, some of them backtracked and others half-scatted, but each generating more tension to a song that just skitters off on the edges. Details disorient — a sudden guitar line, whistling, that drum machine they are racing against rumbling off — and everything just rumbles around until the pieces end up in just the right order to create a real mind tripper. Listen above.