056: Ben Seretan - Climb The Ladder
It's fair to say that you never quite know what to expect from Ben Seretan. Across his sprawling catalogue of songs released thus far we've been treated to just about every genre you could care to imagine, from drone and folk to electronic and all manner of freaky unravellings. There was even time for an exquisite collection of piano instrumentals recorded on a vintage Steinway in the dusty corner of a dance studio in the Appalachian Mountains - as resonant now as it was upon release during those long strange days of 2021.
Released in a few weeks, Seretan's new album is his 'rock' record - a rich, colourful, and diverse seven-song collection that he's long referred to as his "insane Italy record". It was burned to tape in just three days in a stone farmhouse in the hills above Venice, and the humid, glowing, unhinged energy of such a rush positively pours out of every corner of Alora, as the album has come to be known in the time since.
New, and third, single 'Climb The Ladder' is that temperature and nature personified, a somewhat frazzled undertaking that always threatens to combust under the midday sun that pressed down upon it, heavy and intoxicating. We've already been treated to the sprawling eight-minutes of 'New Air' and while 'Climb The Ladder' is wrapped up in just three-minutes it feels equally arresting, spirals into a kind of flick-book of scattered, radiant colours.
It's crazy and colourful and all the better for it; a rock song that leans just far enough away from its influences (Built To Spill, Yo La Tengo) to produce something wholly unique and impressive; a one of a kind, baked in the Mediterranean heat.
Alora is released July 26th, via Tiny Engines
Pre-order via Bandcamp here
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