Sea Cycles – ‘Ground & Air’ (album stream) (Premiere)

The Jacksonville, Florida band Sea Cycles is an interesting case as far as music that’s been called “synth-pop” goes. Whereas the regular practitioners of that style typically place vocals at the center — albeit usually through a gamut of vocal processors and effects — this quartet’s music is primarily instrumental, evoking the stylistics of post-rock. Both “Your Mind is a Sundial” and “Fiber Optic Cables To Antarctica” are close sonic kin to the music of Mogwai, the former sounding like a potential B-side to 2001’s Rock Action. Introspective in disposition and pensive in mood, Ground & Air is an instrumental set that conjures up vivid mental landscapes, as the best instrumental music is in wont to do.

Sea Cycles says to PopMatters about their new album: “Since the beginning of our band, our music has really been themed around connectivity. Especially the subconscious kind. For this album, we focused on the idea of global connectivity. The idea that with all the new communication technology in the world, the earth has grown a nervous system. Literally, not figuratively. It’s hard to see it from our perspective as being one cell on the planet, but we are on a living organism, and humans are building a nervous system. When a terror attack happens in Nigeria, and people on the other side of the world are in hysteria and mourning within hours, that’s a global nervous system working effectively. Our system transfers emotions as quickly as it does data.”

Ground & Air is out on 9 June via Other People.

Upcoming Sea Cycles tour dates:

6/19 — Mansfield, OH @ Relax, It’s Just Coffee

6/21 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Peoples Warehouse

6/22 — Richmond, VA @ Houdan House

6/24 — Brooklyn, NY @ Kings County Saloon

6/25 — Portsmouth, NH @ The Red Door

6/26 — Worcester, MA @ Distant Castle

6/27 — Montreal, QC @ Turbohaus

6/28 — Toronto, ON @ The Smiling Buddah

6/30 — Grand Rapids, MI @ The Quad

7/01 — Kalamazoo, IN @ No Fun House

7/02 — Chicago, IL @ The Abbey

7/03 — Urbana, IL @ Audiofeed

7/04 — Dayton, OH @ Blind Bobs

7/05 — Columbus, OH @ Brothers Drake