SEEMING - The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity

SEEMING: Artoffact Records to release post-industrial mastermind's third album, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity; new track streaming

Artoffact Records presents the August 21st release of The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity, the third full-length album by Seeming.

Stream new single, "Remember to Breathe," here:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3KFwqGWmycn1IqAmclEeaE

Pre-order the album, here:
https://seeming.bandcamp.com/album/the-birdwatchers-guide-to-atrocity

Menacing but vulnerable, furious but intimate, Seeming's post-industrial music is on the fringe of a new generation of heavy, dark, cerebral pop. The upcoming The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity bears traces of elder visionaries, from Peter Gabriel and Roger Waters, to Diamanda Galás and Trent Reznor, and places Seeming in the company of modern-day darlings like Drab Majesty, Blanck Mass, and The Knife.

Led by New York-based author, theorist, and composer Alex Reed, Seeming broke out in 2014 with its Madness & Extinction LP, earning an Album of the Year award from darkwave tastemakers I Die: You Die. Sophomore album SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual, released in 2017, was named Album of the Decade by UK blog A Model of Control.

With pounding drums, a dazzling palette of synth sounds, and Reed's voice exuding both confidence and humility, Seeming’s third album, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity, is another staunchly unique masterpiece – a breathtaking work from an artist who reinvents himself with every song.

Urgent in tone, grandiose in style, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity was co-produced with renowned avant-garde percussionist Sarah Hennies and features a guest vocal by Bill Drummond of legendary, inscrutable, UK duo The KLF – Drummond's first recorded vocal appearance in two decades.

Via brilliant lyrics, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity speaks with radically progressive fervor to social, political and environmental crises of today. The album is startlingly in sync with the news headlines of summer 2020, though the songs were composed prior to these events: "The Flood Comes for You" features the phrase "I can't breathe"; "Go Small" and "Celebration Song" both address a "virus"; and the album title itself takes on eerie significance in light of the Amy Cooper incident in Central Park.

Reed states: "The album is about the struggle to remain alive and sane while coping with Earth's insanity and cruelty. But it also brims with reminders of how to survive another day." Whilst acknowledging apocalypse, it ultimately uplifts and empowers.

The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity was recorded by Reed, with Aaron Fuleki and Sarah Hennies, in various locations: Ithaca, NY, Amsterdam and the south of France. "We recorded in garages, outdoors in fields, and at airports," claims Reed.

As a companion to The Birdwatcher’s Guide to Atrocity, Artoffact will release bonus album Monster. Undulous and looming, Monster showcases Reed’s more sprawling songs. 

As an author, Reed's works include the 400-page Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music and a 33 1/3 book about They Might Be Giants' Flood. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at Ithaca College.

Tracklist:
1) The Fates
2) Go Small
3) Someday Lily
4) The Flood Comes for You
5) Remember to Breathe
6) End Studies
7) Permanent
8) Reality Is Afraid
9) Learn to Vanish (feat. Bill Drummond of The KLF)
10) Celebration Song

Lineup:
Alex Reed - songwriting, vocals, instruments
Aaron Fuleki - drums
with
Sarah Hennies - drums

LPs:
The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity (2020)
SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual (2017)
Madness & Extinction (2014)

EPs, singles, bonus collections:
Monster (bonus album) (2020)
Life on Mars (single) (2019)
Talk About Bones (EP) (2017)
Faceless (EP) (2017)
Worldburners (EP) (2015)
Silent DiscoVery (8-Track) (2014)
Silent Disco (single) (2014)

Band photo by Benjamin Torrey