Sacramento avant-pop group Biosexual finds itself as the off-kilter home for the musical minds of Zac Nelson and siblings Michael RJ Saalman and Jocelyn Noir. And while each artist has had some measure of solo success prior to forming Biosexual, it’s the communal inspiration and interplay between the three musicians that sets their work here far apart from any previous releases. That’s not to say that you aren’t likely to hear the electronic influences of their former musical lives, but their recent eponymous debut together is something wholly their own. The album was originally conceived by Nelson and Saalman over the course of a few years, but Noir came on board in early 2012 to lend her not inconsiderable talents to the project — especially when the idea of live performance was brought up. Melding homemade beatwork, droning loops, and chaotic synths with oddly arrhythmic melodies, the band creates a vast network of songs that explore the hazy connections between the natural world and a more rolling electronic landscape.
On their latest single, “Shine My Noon,” Biosexual start with a motorik beat and add bits of percussion and synth that augment its otherworldly quality, but the song doesn’t merely run through a collection of atrophic beats. Soon enough, the minimal rhythm gives way to heavily oscillating synths, ethereal vocals, and a more muscular version of the opening beat. Stray wisps of distortion collar the synths and give the vocals an even more submerged feel. A track like “Shine My Noon” could easily have felt inconsequential in another band’s hands, but here it feels immediate, as if it were steadily pressing in on the periphery of our consciousness. It’s a small miracle of electronic flourishes, ragged beats, and hazily intermingled voices.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere Biosexual’s new single, “Shine My Noon,” taken from their recently released eponymous debut.
