Seattle-based multi-genre innovative artist Combinator, aka Sean Fairchild, will drop his new EP re//combinator on June 17. The EP is heralded by an artificial intelligence-powered lyric video, “Guest In Your Own Skin,” which was released on May 17.
re//combinator encompasses four original tracks along with two remixes from Jesse Holt of Second Coming and one track, “Through The Fog,” featuring Isaac Chirino. The upcoming EP follows Combinator’s 2020 EP, Eargoggle Fodder.
Born abroad and raised in Malaysia, France, China, Japan, and around the US, Emmy-awarded and multi-endorsed Sean Fairchild developed an ear for the universally shared qualities of music that would propel him to charge through arbitrary ethnomusicological boundaries threatening to stand in the way of creativity. Moving to Seattle just in time for the city’s alternative heyday, the future all-sound blender adopted a free-spirited, alt-rock ethos that would serve as the foundation for his musical adventures.
“Guest In Your Own Skin” travels on a Rush-Esque intro flowing into an industrial-flavored melody riding a syncopated rhythm. Hints of prog-metal give the harmonics thrumming textures, at once rumbling and infused with cutting edginess. Slightly distorted vocals imbue the lyrics with portentous dynamism.
“Kinda think the scenario is irrele(vant) / It only is ‘cause it’s always been / When it comes and it’s coming fast you’re gonna / Be a guest in your own skin.”
Vaguely reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well,” there’s a captivating latency to “Guest In Your Own Skin,” the emanation of a psychic aura impervious to reason as if Combinator recognizes a pervasive, insidious affect others can’t perceive, akin to Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Uniquely, Combinator pushes the bassline inside the melodic realm, giving the song dense layers of electrifying tones, all within a structured leitmotif.
Highlights on the EP include “Things That Should,” with its futuristic sci-fi feel, and “Through The Fog,” opening on a Tool-like intro rolling into progressive rock merged with jazz infusions, conjuring up suggestions of Pink Floyd covering “Schism.”
Not only ground-breaking but sonically provocative, re//combinator delivers sui generis music full of tantalizing, unforgettable freshness.
