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The Obelisk Radio Add of the Week: Sean Proper, Canal Machinery

Posted in Radio on May 29th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Rarely does a young guitarist blend acoustic resonance and droning textures and come across sounding anything other than self-indulgent, but when it comes to Floridian six-and-12-stringer Sean Proper (aka Sean Wrubel), the balance sounds easy. With a variety of fingerpicking methods, Proper is able to evoke surprisingly rich atmospherics using what seem like simple and even minimalist methods on the new 28-minute self-release, Canal Machinery. The drama is immediate from the start of the first track, “1.”

All five of Canal Machinery‘s pieces follow that numerical course in their titling, which doesn’t do much to highlight the differences between them — like the dense weaving of notes that “2” brings about, vaguely Western in its feel but not at all countrified, or the sprawl of “4” and the tension it builds, or the wandering sensibility of “3” or the final contemplations of “5” — but the songs, such as they are, stand up on their own in terms of mood and ambience. As the last of them, “5” stands out as particularly resonant, the 12-string guitar arriving at what feels like a thick riff given punctuation by harder strums and plucks, resulting in a layered feel that holds its intrigue to the very end.

Wrubel has a couple releases under his belt using the Sean Proper moniker, all released this year. FFS compiles earlier recordings from 2005-2009, and Live at Newcollege 2/15 is, as the title would indicate, a live recording, so to get an idea for the kinds of textures the project is aiming to achieve, Canal Machinery seems like it’s the way to go. And if three releases within the span of five months hints at anything, it’s that it probably won’t be all that long before Sean Proper has a follow-up in the works. All the better.

You can hear Sean Proper‘s Canal Machinery now as part of the regular rotation on The Obelisk Radio as well as check it out and grab a free download from the Bandcamp player below. Either way, enjoy:

Sean Proper, Canal Machinery (2013)

Sean Proper on Bandcamp

Sean Proper on Thee Facebooks

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