Sound Effects Of Death And Horror

New Album – Rossum: Experimental Radio

Rossum: Experimental Radio by Sound Effects Of Death And Horror Format: CD Release date: 26 May 2023 Label: Wormhole World - available now. Rossum: Experimental Radio is the fourth full album from SEODAH - if you exclude collaborations, various mini-albums and a diversion into thrash metal.... It follows on from...

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New Album – Rossum: Experimental Radio

Rossum: Experimental Radio by Sound Effects Of Death And Horror

Rossum: Experimental Radio is the fourth full album from SEODAH – if you exclude collaborations, various mini-albums and a diversion into thrash metal….

It follows on from 2021’s Mota-Rolla and is the first of three concept albums John SEODAH is working on based on classic sci-fi from the early 20th century. The next two are also nearly done and are planned to be released within the next year or so.

Rossum: Experimental Radio

Artwork

The amazing cover uses artwork by noted illustrator Sam Chivers. You can visit his site here: samchivers.com.

Stream “Raging Thurst For Life”

Raging Thurst For life is the first track to be released from Rossum:Experimental Radio. It tells the story of how the first robots were created.

About Rossum: Experimental Radio

It’s based on the classic play, “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)”, written by Czechoslovakian writer Karel Capek in 1920.

It uses an old, public domain radio adaptation, by The Columbia Workshop on 18 April 1937, for narration.

“R.U.R.” is significant as it is the first appearance of the term “robot” in English and the first science fiction story telling about the uneasy relationship between humans and robots.

The album itself tells the story through a mixture of samples from the play, library sounds and music written to support the story. It veers from dubby “progtronica”, through EDM, minimalism to full-on synth badness – with possibly a wee bit of industrial thrown in for good measure….

Think Jah Wobble playing bass for Public Service Broadcasting with a bit of Mike Oldfield, Terry Riley and Tangerine Dream thrown in the mixer….

You’ll hopefully note that sounds veer from vocal synths to synthetic sounds and back as the future of mankind is decided….it also switches through melody, rhythm and mild discordance as it progresses.

Instruments featured on the album include an 80s Steinberger bass and a variety of analogue and soft synths, along with a modular set-up and a mighty dub siren…

Everything was written and played by SEODAH and recorded in his tiny loft studio.

Reviews

“It’s electronic music with one foot in the eerie past and one in the future, always alert and primed for any eventuality.”

Lorna Irvine, Snack Mag – May 2023.

“…a splendidly organic feel, weaving dub basslines around vintage analogue synths.”

Bob Fischer, Fortean Times – September 2023

Playing live

The album itself is the first SEODAH album to be written explicitly with the intention of playing it live. Indeed, excerpts from it were part of SEODAH’s live debut at Wavetable, the monthly synth night in Edinburgh, in November 2022. A couple of friends helped, providing synth fairy dust and live visuals.

About SEODAH

The name Sound Effects Of Death And Horror comes from the BBC soundtrack album of the same name released in 1977. It’s a one-person project by John D’Alex Seodah-Johnson (quite possibly not his real name).

He grew up in England in the 70s and 80s, experiencing at first hand the joys of the Cold War and Thatcherism. His early memories are full of civil defence, nuclear siren tests, public information films, Quatermass and Doctor Who.

John played in thrash metal bands in the 80s and 90s but gave up to focus on his own compositions and songs. With influences from Celtic Frost and Black Sabbath through to Tangerine Dream, King Crimson, Vangelis and Terry Riley he uses a broad range of styles in his compositions.

Film has also been a lifelong fascination – not just visuals but the soundtracks too. John Carpenter and Goblin fuel a lot of late nights. Reading is another inspiration. He quickly graduated from Tolkien to King, Herbert and Barker and then onto Ballard, Vonnegut and beyond.

SEODAH is the culmination of all this. John sees it as a series of projects and concepts that interest him – hopefully you’ll like them too. Whether you class it as prog, ambient, electronic, or experimental music is up to the listener.

Watch…

You can see a video of the album as a work in progress filmed for Wavetable in November:

Spotify

SEODAH back catalogue on Spotify:

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