Links:Apple MusicBandcampInstagram
FacebookSpotifySlime Ring is the weirdo experimental/pop project of
Sebastian Marquez (he/him), a queer, Latinx member of Atlanta’s music scene and former leader of the Athens, GA-based punk band
Dead Neighbors. Owing as much to
Steve Reich,
Miles Davis, and
Radiohead as
Yoko Kanno,
Yasunori Mitsuda, and the
Evergrace OST, Sebastian creates music that can be dream pop, improvised jazz, drum and bass, and shoegaze often at the same time.
Explorer Series Vol. 1 represents a break from his previous creative process. Instead of writing each song in the release as a brick to build a record with, each song was treated as a self-contained “wall” with no expectation of continuity. In addition, frequent illness during the recording forced Sebastian to seek assistance with using voice on the album. Calling in vocal favors from fellow Atlanta artists
Wieuca,
Hannah Bo Lecter (
Lowtown,
Ladybusch),
Keron (
Vessel), and violinist
Lily Zwaan (
Scare Quotes), Sebastian wanted to create a snapshot of his place in the music scene. What proceeds is an exploration of “genre” within each song. Shoegaze, dream pop, vaporwave, new internet drum and bass, hip hop, and sly minimal afrobeat electronica with weirdo jazz and spoken word all make appearances in concert with each other creating a tapestry that could only be possible in that moment and that place in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is embodied fully in the collaborative live album
Live Ring: Slime @ WREK. It documents a one-off performance live on the Georgia Tech student radio station performed with
Isaac Bishop of the bands Vessel and
Fun Isn’t Fair. It’s a partially improvised mix of live ambient/new-age music performed with synth, bass clarinet, extended technique guitar, saxophone, flute, percussion, and voice. The duo performance both reinterpreted some songs from the
SLM_RNG_EP for live performance and tapped into their shared time in the improvisatory collective
Flea Circus to create a locked-in performance that stands as a testament to Sebastian’s previous involvements with jazz performance in school.