SEABEAR > We Built A Fire

SEABEAR

We Built A Fire

(MORR MUSIC)

[Rating: 3.5 stars]

If Brian Wilson, Beck and Bjork collaborated with early R.E.M., it wouldn’t sound exactly like Seabear, but it would be at least in the same ballpark. Here’s unabashed melodicism married to a spirit of beguiling innocence and sonic ingenuity. Like Beck, especially, there’s a happy melding of folkie tunefulness on acoustic assemblies of fiddles, drums and guitars with ambitiously subterranean and yet sunny techno textures. Hailing from frosty Reykjavik, Iceland, Seabear began as the solo project of Sindri Már Sigfússon, gradually expanding into a seven member group. Here are deeply echo-laden layers of guitars, vocals, drums, trumpets and miscellaneous sound effects woven delicately around affably singable melodies. Things often start normal and veer off into unexpected places, as in “Warm Blood,” which tangles warm piano and banjo with portentous overdriven guitar and dissonantly edgy violin. Layers of vocals lie low in the mix, and have a childlike sweetness to them, not unlike Tom Tom Club in its interface of whimsy and techno-funk. “Wooden Teeth” has a double-time bluegrass fiddle feel, while “Wolfboy” is a power-pop gem. “Fire Dies Down” is crystallized by a mournful bowed saw that sings throughout the song before morphing slowly into a violin like the spirit becoming flesh. From icy Iceland comes a band cooking with a lot of fire, and the outcome is both happy and hypnotic, and well worth a listen.