Saitam: "Union"

Big up to Ad Hoc for finding this. For those of you who haven't heard, Ad Hoc is basically a retooled MP3 arcana aggregator from the folks that ran the ill-fated (Pitchfork-associated) site Altered Zones, which went kaput somewhere around six months ago (this information could probably be researched and verified if WKMR had any kind of editorial guidelines... we don't).



West - East can be streamed in full at Saitam's Soundcloud page. The five tracks find a band struggling to find a middle ground between percussive, worldbeat-driven tunes and esoteric, tuneless chillgaze (yes, I just made that term up; please don't run with it). Not sure I'm quite on board for the latter, but "Union" and "Rebellion" are definitely compelling as rhythmic constructs. Hopefully the band will either improve the melodic aspect of the vocal tracks or jettison that side of their personality altogether. But hey... growing pains. No biggie.