Label: Stroom – STRLP-067
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: Belgium
Released: 10 May 2023
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Krautrock, Post-Punk, Experimental, Leftfield
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. (Mint / New)
Tracklist
A1 Seduced By Each And Every Shiny Object I Became An Infant In A Sea Of Glance
A2 To What Human Product Precisely Are You Devoting So Much Ingenuity
A3 This Song Emanates From The Common Man Claiming His Right To Poetry
A4 Not Sensing The World, I Should Forget It’s Existence And Be Forgotten By Those Who Live In It
B1 This Life Can Not Be All They Swear, For How Unpleasant Of It Were
B2 Soon The Tears In My Eyes Will Be Blinding And Blessing At The Same Time
B3 Bodies Pressed Against Small Platforms In Institutionally Resolved Postures
B4 I Will Allow Myself This World Whose Wear And Tear Is Without Cure
B5 The Annoying Got Interesting Because The Interesting Got Annoying
