Castles in Space is thrilled to present a timely new album from Keith Seatman – his first “extraordinary adventure” since 2020’s “Time To Dream But Never Seen”. “Sad Old Tatty Bunting” is another multi layered, deeply psychedelic construction which contains collaborations with Jim Jupp (Ghost Box, Belbury Poly) and Douglas E. Powell (Broken Folk).
There’s no one quite like Keith Seatman. His new album Sad Old Tatty Bunting, is a psychedelic joyride through a parallel universe, a dreamlike England full of alchemists and scarecrows and gated communities guarded by gnomes.
Bob Fischer Electronic Sound (March 2022)
Keith has gradually risen to the top of the pile of the hauntology genre. For this new album It’s an album of wonky, kaleidoscopic psychedelia and has some genuinely scary moments on offer. It’s like some mad, arcade feature, I am again caught up in a seemingly never ending fairground nightmare, there’s a ton of synths and backwards guitar riffs vying for my attention.
Andrew Young Terrascope (May 2022)
Keith provides the vision and background to the album:
“The inspiration for Sad Old Tatty Bunting came about very early one morning in April 2020, during the first UK lockdown. I had taken to going for long walks between six and seven o’clock in the morning. I would stroll aimlessly and directionless up and down terraced streets, along the beach and on the prom.
On these early morning walks, places that were once very familiar to me seemed to have changed and taken on an unfamiliar feel. With this change I noticed new things, things which I had not seen before or maybe had no memory of ever seeing.
“One morning I passed an old pub. Hanging in the beer garden was some very old and quite shabby looking bunting. As I stared at the faded old colours I started to wonder why the bunting was there? Was it put up to mark a long forgotten occasion? Or had it been placed there to just brighten up the garden? As the weeks went by, I started to wander further and every now and then would notice more random old tatty bunting hanging from trees, lamp posts or in windows. On theses walks an idea started to take root. I came up with and really liked the phrase Sad Old Tatty Bunting. I mentioned this to my friend Douglas E Powell who said it sounded like the name of an old scarecrow (Tatty Bunting) it was then that I realised that Sad Old Tatty Bunting could refer to many different concepts/ideas/places/books and things. What, who or even where was Sad Old Tatty Bunting? I honestly had no idea…but it was definitely an idea I was going to pursue…”
One time member of Portsmouth Psych/Noise/Indie Band Psylons, Keith Seatman has released 7 albums and 2 EPs of strange Electronics, Psych, Radiophonics, Drone and quirky Folk. Keith Seatman has been played on BBC Radio 6 music’s The Freak Zone, Gideon Coe Show and BBC Radio 3 Late Junction.
An album steeped in sweet shop mysticism of a stranger and gentler England. Its Syd Barrett, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Radiophonic workshop and even Tommy Cooper and the remnants of Music hall.
Its barely February but he might have made the album of the year.
Bob Fisher (Electronic Sound, Feb 2020)
Keith Seatman’s music is an anachronistically repurposed assemblage of sounds, melodies and technologies plundered from different time zones. This latest excursion is bad-trip psychedelia shot through with wistful and whimsical melodies and occasional haunted voices. There’s a queasy parade of lysergic imagery.
Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly, Ghostbox Records)
Time To Dream is a very entertaining set of tunes, the composition and layering technique of Seatman has much to admire, and he’s structured the record as a two-sided event that plays very well. As to that technique, I sense that it’s quite labour intensive; there are synths, there are samples, but it’s never clear where Seatman’s keyboard playing leaves off and where the nostalgic found-objects (if indeed there are any) begin.
Ed Pinsent The Sound Projector