Send "Sebastian " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 The title track from French producer and Ed Banger affiliate SebastiAn's debut album, Total, runs a little under a minute and a half. But the song's video makes economical use of its time, cramming hundreds of quickly edited pieces of footage both disturbingly violent and explicitly pornographic-- a decapitated body, a woman with a vaginal slit for a face-- into one ADD-affected piece of manufactured shock. Beyond thrill seekers, the meme brigade, and the endless offensiveness of 4chan, it's hard to conceive who the audience for this thing could be. In a way, though, it's representative of the Ed Banger aesthetic: aggressive and in your face, but not exactly where you look for deeper meaning.Aggressiveness is still the name of the game on Total. The album's 52 minutes are packed with nasty-sounding, repetition-heavy grindhouse electro. SebastiAn's score for last year's Romain Gavras film Notre Jour Viendra showcased a more subtle, classical-indebted side, with warmly foreboding strings; you do get a glimpse of that here, albeit very briefly, on 45-second interlude "Night" and harpsichord-smothered "Tetra". Otherwise, if your familiarity with Ed Banger reaches as far as "those guys with the light-up cross," you know not to expect much in terms of nuance. In the current dance music climate, Total's sound comes across as crassly commercial and ultimately dated-- sometimes literally, as in the inclusion of grating years-old singles "Ross Ross Ross" and "Motor". Total's most compelling moments dial back the frizzy, hard-hitting stuff in favor of smoother fare reminiscent of fellow Parisian crate digger Onra's R&B odysseys. Single "Embody" has a particularly slinking appeal, while the effervescence of "Arabest" and "Yes" is infectious. Most surprising of all is Mayer Hawthorne-featuring "Love in Motion", where the white-bread soul dude drops an enjoyably muted vocal over mutant bass and crisp handclaps. (Elsewhere, the album's other high-profile guest, M.I.A., barely coughs on "C.T.F.O.", a rote slice of churlish bass music.)...full text |
| Harderbloggerfaster |
| SebastiAn’s album is incredibly hard to classify into one particular genre, known as the dark horse of the Ed Banger family, he has been waiting in the wings for what seems like ages, but now he’s ready to take the limelight – it has been a long in coming, but oh boy was it worth the wait. With his debut album ‘Total’ he has delivered an album that manages to beat the hype into submission with a cacophony of rugged, high-energy raw sounds that takes over from where Justice left off – while remaining true to the Ed Banger aesthetic. The sheer number of tracks is the first surprise of the album as it comes in at whopping 22 tracks, now not all of these full-fledged tracks, some are sketches, reprises, nuggets of genius from Seb. The album opens with ‘Hudson River’ a 51 one second introduction that serves as an aperitif of what’s to come, an album that references everything from his unique taste in music – don’t be surprised if you hear slices and dices of twisted hip-hop, rugged R&B, french filtered disco, coarse techno, IDM, and of cause Ed Banger rock. The opening four tracks starts you on an amazing journey into the mind of Sebastian and it’s one of the most exciting journey’s you will take this year....full text |
| Toomanysebastians |
| SebastiAn is Sebastian Akchoté a French Electro producer and member of the Ed Banger crew. In 2005 he released the Smoking Kills EP (it’s pretty good) but it’s safe to say it was in 2006 with his track “Ross Ross Ross” did the electro world stand-up and take notice. Personally, at the time, for me it was a bit of revolutionary record because there hadnt been anything that sounded like it before. The next five years were peppered with the occasional ep, remix and soundtrack work. However, all everybody really wanted was an album and now that album is here. *Spoiler* it’s not shit although it’s pushes it a little bit in places. Time for a track-by-track review of the 22 tracks! Wooo!...full text |
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