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Brandon Seabrook

Described by Spin Magazine as “An apocalyptic, supersonic general of the banjo…” Brandon Seabrook has made a name for himself in the New York avant-garde music scene as an explosive guitar and banjo performer, relentlessly committed to immediacy and precision.

Seabrook honed his terror-inducing riffage skills at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has since performed extensively in North and South America, Mexico and Europe, as a solo artist, bandleader and collaborator. He has been summoned by the likes of Anthony Braxton, Elliot Sharp and Joey Arias for his unpredictably spiked approach to improvisation and impeccable caterwauling. He has been profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Magnet Magazine, Fretboard Journal, NPR and The Wire.

Seabrook Power Plant, the nuclear trio donned “a manic clusterfuck of merciless banjo torture” by the Village Voice, is Brandon’s brainchild, blending the brutal energy of punk-rock with the intricate execution of through-composed avant jazz. The band has released two albums to much critical acclaim. Time Out New York praised the band’s eponymous debut as “not only one of the most baffling experimental releases of the year... also one of the best.”

Brandon is an accomplished solo artist, named Best Guitarist in New York City by the Village Voice 2012. In 2014, New Atlantis Records released his first solo album titled Sylphid Vitalizers. Noisey called the album a “dissonant guitar army…(with) mind-blowing prog-rock complexities – all at mind-numbing breakneck speed.”

Brandon is currently working on two new albums with his noise-prog trio, Needle Driver and a new sextet featuring immoral, percussive compositions under the name Die Trommel Fatale. This recent work is a poly-rhythmic exploration of the dark side of the drum, layering cello, bass, electronics, voice and guitar against dichotomous drummers.


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6
Radio & Podcasts

Brandon Seabrook's Magic Clusterf**k Of Merciless Banjo Torture

Read "Brandon Seabrook's Magic Clusterf**k Of Merciless Banjo Torture" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer


The Spotlight shines On guitarist and banjoist Brandon Seabrook, hot off the release of his new album brutalovechamp (Pyroclastic Records). Brandon is known for pushing his music past the far reaches of the extreme, fusing elements from punk, jazz, pop, and metal. His music has been called “abrasive" and “angular," with an intense focus on virtuosity. brutalovechamp covers new ground. With his octet, Epic Proportions, Brandon explores beauty, personal emotion and a lyricism not usually associated ...

6
Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place

Read "The Last Quiet Place" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock always seems to search out new instrumental configurations for her music. This time out, she and her musical and life partner, drummer Tom Rainey, collaborate with a quartet of accomplished string players, guitarist Brandon Seabrook, violinist Mazz Swift, cellist Tomeka Reid, and bassist Michael Formanek. Together they create stimulating music which can be many things. At different times it sounds formal, urgent, placid, and violent. “Afterglow" and “Anticipation" explore some of the classical possibilities of ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place

Read "The Last Quiet Place" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


A tre anni e mezzo dalla sua incisione (settembre 2019), giunge all'ufficialità della pubblicazione questo notevole album della cinquantaduenne sassofonista tedesca Ingrid Laubrock, capace di regalarci una volta di più testimonianza eloquente del suo valore, come tutta una serie di collaborazioni quanto mai prestigiose e la sua stessa produzione discografica, abbondante ed esauriente, ci avevano detto con chiarezza di dettagli. Qui la stessa conformazione del sestetto protagonista del lavoro, con ben quattro strumenti a corde di cui ...

11
Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place

Read "The Last Quiet Place" reviewed by Troy Dostert


When saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock finds herself in her comfort zone, it is typically in small group formations--often just duos or trios--which allow her unparalleled skills as an improviser to shine most brightly. However, listeners are always in for a special treat when she ventures out into less familiar terrain, especially with larger ensembles. On recordings such as Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt, 2018) or Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt (Intakt, 2020), Laubrock takes advantage of the opportunity to develop her ambitious compositional ...

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Festivals Talking

Moers Festival Interviews: Brandon Seabrook

Read "Moers Festival Interviews: Brandon Seabrook" reviewed by Martin Longley


Brandon Seabrook cultivates a forked assault on the guitar and the banjo, amplifying both of them, and negotiating their strings at high speeds, filling his playing with hyper-detailed improvisations, or constructing complex compositional strategies, frequently referred to as 'riffs.' Seabrook has long been a crucial presence on the New York City scene, whether leading his own bands, or collaborating with a variegated host of artists on the jazz, rock and improvisational scenes. Often within the same unit. He's ...

5
Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Read "March" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This is the second release by drummer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara's unique double trio with himself and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on brass, a group that can be configured as two trios, three pairs of instruments or something in between. The sound of the resulting combinations can come out ambient or raucous, but tends towards an angular prog-jazz fusion sound, that can pack the punch of ...

9
Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Read "March" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Drummer, composer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara did not set out to rebut the saying “familiarity breeds contempt," but March from his sextet Triple Double does just that. His combination of three pairs of double instruments—guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, cornet/trumpets Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi, plus double drummers Gerald Cleaver and Tomas Fujiwara himself—creates respect, the opposite of contempt. The harmonious and organic nature of this music, first heard on their self-titled debut album Triple Double (Firehouse 12, ...

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80

Radio

The Jazz Session #151: Brandon Seabrook

The Jazz Session #151: Brandon Seabrook

Source: Michael Ricci


Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Last Quiet Place

Pyroclastic Records
2023

buy

Brutalovechamp

Pyroclastic Records
2023

buy

March

Firehouse 12 Records
2022

buy

Stove Top

RareNoiseRecords
2021

buy

Convulsionaries

Astral Spirits
2018

buy

Die Trommel Fatale

New Atlantis Records
2017

buy

The Perils of Self Betterment

From: Brutalovechamp
By Brandon Seabrook

Anticipation

From: The Last Quiet Place
By Brandon Seabrook

Anticipation

From: The Last Quiet Place
By Brandon Seabrook

Pack Up, Coming for You

From: March
By Brandon Seabrook

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