Semaphore
NYC’s Semaphore are readying their debut album All Too Robot for release later this September presenting us with a debut listen to the new single “CNN” that pushes the feeling & conversation beyond the polemics & polarities of the 24 hour news cycles. An album mastered by Alan Douches & a group fronted by multi-instrumentalist Siddhu Anandalingam; the band leader blends his Columbia University learnings from the focuses of both Chemical Engineering & music fusing the traits of both into an alchemy of signatures & signals that further delves into the sciences of sonic sounds.
Thoughts on media obsessions that are centered around the merchants of epiphanies for the masses & the constant clamor from the subtle fascists who control the masses are lit up by Anandalingam & company on the cable company obsessions that have consumed everyone from the top down in our world of civics. Siddhu along with bassist Chris Hunt, percussionist Emmett Ceglia & guitarist Jay Kohler take on the endless Möbius strip loop of laboriously licentious peddlers of manufactured mania that prey upon the primordial fears of humankind in the name of cheap Nielsen ratings/ad revenue returns. The genius of “CNN” is the 90s slacker pop approach that Semaphore employees to heavy extents that achieve a kind of effect that feels like falling face first into the What’s Up Matador compilations that were the audio bible for many a bedroom pop believer. Semaphore sends up a message to the woke, or hopefully soon-to-be-woke masses to seek greater forms of news perhaps in the written forms that are not necessarily designed for info-tainment purposes & more.
Sempahore’s Siddhu Anandalingam introduced the debut of the single “CNN” with the following insights:
“CNN” is a song dealing with the concept of discussion versus argument, and the falsity of implied equal time. Arguing is an easier alternative to discussion since you do not have to engage in dialogue, and do not have to change your mind. This relates to “CNN”’s use of political talking heads who simply regurgitate their viewpoint rather than try to reach some sort of common ground with the other side. Both sides state their points in opposition which ensures that their viewers remain divided. The theme of trying to break out from one’s own comfort zone to find what happiness is reflected in All Too Robot. Perhaps it will be messy at first, but true happiness might lie in rejecting some of your own initial viewpoints or ideologies you subscribe to.
Musically, the song is influenced by Blink 182, Radiohead and Sonic Youth, and the guitars are tuned using non-standard tunings.
Catch Semaphore via the following live dates:
August
04 Brooklyn, NY – The Tender Trap
25 Brooklyn, NY – The Gateway
