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Flowchart
(Sean O'Neal & Erin Anderson)
related
projects: Flowtron (Flowchart & Jim L. Jones) : Commercial
(Sean & Trevor Kampman) : Mental Floss (with Christopher
Frank) : Fuzzybox Records : tbtmo
Flowchart is probably the longest
running project of Sean O'Neal, captain of Fuzzybox records and mogul of
the local Philly indie-electronic scene, what with his connections in San
Francisco and the East Coast DIY community for 10 years now. In 1998, Flowchart
picked up with the DJ/party scene, albeit tongue in cheek, and since then
their sound has moved towards house and techno. Their rave scene parody,
Flowtron, produced by Jim L. Jones and remixed by Pete Moss and Nigel Richards,
may serve as some sort of a charm against this influence. (I doubt it).
The bliss out days when Flowchart helped define late 1990s indie-ambient
are over for now. Flowchart is blazing new trails.
My favorite of their opi
is their album Tenjira on the Darla label. It was the first volume in Darla's
acclaimed Bliss Out Series. Tenjira was constructed by Sean and Brodie
Budd and is an exquisite work. Brodie's moved on from the Flowchart cabin,
replaced by Erin Anderson in the co-pilot's seat. Cumulous Mood Twang,
Sean and Erin's first full length together was a thick, dense and goopy
ambient molasses, intense and not in my ears, easy listening. Erin is a
graduate of the Moore College of Art and played the church organ growing
up.
Sean and Erin can be found
DJing their latest finds at Mental Floss, their gig at the 700 Club every
third Tuesday. If you go you're also likely to see Christopher Frank, whose
album Tleilaxu was released on Fuzzybox/Darla. In fact, Flowchart and Fuzzybox
are at the epicenter of Philly electronic music. Sean works at 611 Records
and is regularly given props at 611 parties. He also has regular columns
in the City Paper and Philly2nite. |
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Read an interview with Sean
O'Neal at Konketsu.
From Epitonic.com:
Flowchart, n. 1.
A schematic diagram or expository outline showing the progress of material
through the various steps of a manufacturing process. 2. The succession
of operations in a complicated activity.
You're floating along in
a gondola under a brilliant blue sky full of little fluffy clouds when
a canoe passes by carrying a bunch of backup singers and a piano. You're
listening to their song when you notice a happy shining sun illuminating
the comic book colors. That's Flowchart, a necessary layover in the jet-setting
around the global pop scene. After Pizzicato Five's twee-lounge pastiche
and Air's sexy beats, there's New Jersey's dreamy Flowchart.
As with the previously mentioned
bands, Flowchart would be nothing without ABBA (or Free Design, to name-check
something equally as saccharine but more obscure), soaking their '70s drama
queen fandango deep in playful irony.
"Nationwide Sleep Disorder"
is the detailed outline of Sean O'Neal's quest for inner peace through
super-ambient casio-core keyboard textures and maximized minimalism. It
is the first track on Tenjira, the first of Darla's illustrious Bliss Out
series. This collection of four slices of electronic tranquility is one
of the biggest selling Darla releases to date, and according to label-mate
Technicolor, one of the best. See also Commercial, O'Neal's collaboration
with hollAnd, also available on Darla.
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Flowchart Multi-Personality
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| Multi-Personality Tabletop
Vacation (Sean O'Neal 1995) Carrot Top Records
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Tenjira - Bliss Out v.1
(Sean O'Neal and Brodie Budd 1997) DRL-025 Darla Records
From Darla
Records:
Volume 1 of The
Bliss Out. We are proud to begin the series with Sean and Brodie, a.k.a.
Flowchart. The two 22 year olds spend their time making mood elevating
electronic pop and producing raves from New York to Philadelphia. It's
music to make beautiful music to.It's the greatest ambient epic since Music
for Airports. "Tenjira" means to have tea in the sun for breakfast.
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Cumulus Mood Twang (Sean
O'Neal and Erin Anderson 1998) Carrot Top Records
Covert Art by Ivy Glass
Michael
Deming | Feb 1998 | Alternative Press
After the excellent,
if derivative, Stereolab knock-off, 1995's Multi-personality Tabletop Vacation,
the blissful but average new-age-bachelor-pad music of 1997's Tenijra,
and more steady singles than the Buzzocks, Cumulus Mood Twang is Flowchart's
dreamiest, catchiest and most original statement yet. That could be partially
attributed to engineer Michael Deming's influence; he has proved that no
one gets better sounds from vintage equipment, or better helps free-flowing
geniuses match the finished project to the harmonies in their head, than
he does. After opening with a teasingly infectious should-be club hit,
the buoyant and oscillating wildly "Envelopment Continuum," band leader
Sean O-Neal sets about his real task-matching heavenly choir sounds to
celestial drones that are indeed worthy of an album with "cumulus" in its
title. It 's the natural next step from Tenjira, adding depth and beauty
to already enrapturing drones, pushing his sounds from pleasant coming-down
background music to the center of attention. O'Neal does this, ironically,
by backing off, and the angelic harmonies make the difference. The gorgeous,
enveloping keyboards seem more like whispers, cascading rather than droning,
entrancing subtly and quietly, unfolding gracefully and gradually over
six or seven minutes, as in the beautifully drifting "Icicles And Clipboards"
and "Rust A La Glare." O'Neal might never be mistaken for Stereolab/High
Llamas member Sean O'Hagan again.
Michael
Deming | Nov 1997 | College Music Journal
Sean O'Neal is a
busy guy. The mastermind behind the project Flowchart, Sean has been a
part of 16 7" singles and 15 compilations. The second long player from
Flowchart blows through your stereo as quietly as an innocent breeze builds
into a smirking thunderstorm. Each track is a rolling wavy push of energy,
determined to make the boundaries between sight and sound very unclear.
The whimpering vocals and buzzing melody become atmospheric as the disc
progresses, and you begin to feel, well, woozy. This playful nature is
deceiving, however, because under Flowchart's bubbles, there is an ominous
sense of eternity, a nervous caution that makes the music sound more and
more dense. "Rain Boa Bye" pulls no punches with its looped-back vocals
and backward snippets, giving off a tense, futuristic vibe. Part of the
fascination with Flowchart is diving into its majestic soundscape. The
most hopeful track, "Rust A La Glare," quickly turns into a kind of global
stutter-step square dance of (what we can only imagine are ) pixies, then
opens up to a mosaic of even smaller sounds. O'Neal comes off as a merry
prankster, propping audial buckets of atmosphere over the doors of perception.
He may be busy, but the sounds he works with are eternal. If you do dive
into Cumulus, it will play these tricks on you,too. Float through the building
noise of "Another Word Explodes,"the calmed "Envelopment Continuum" or
"Icicles and Clipboards."
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Flowtron (Sean O'Neal,
Erin Anderson and Jim L. Jones 1998), Darla Records
Cover Art by Erin Anderson
From Epitonic.com
Sean O'Neal and
Erin Anderson team up with newcomer Jim L. Jones to form Flowtron. They
have handed over the controls (and masters) for their single "Tickle My
Dolphin" to a host of Philadelphia-based artists for a remix collection
of hard house and minimal techno tracks. Pete Moss, Bob Brown, Nigel Richards,
and Cain Edwards take turns tickling Flowchart's marine mammal pet, with
the results ranging from blissed-out early '90s-style rave anthems to cold,
precise mechanical compositions best enjoyed in a large, austere, laser-lit
warehouse just after three a.m.
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Commercial
(Sean O'Neal and Trevor Kampman 1999) Darla Records
From the
City Paper by Brian Howard (September 9, 1999)
As Heard on TV?:
Chances are you haven't heard any of the tunes from Commercial's self-titled
Darla Records debut used to sell any computers or cars yet. That doesn't
mean you might not some day. The 10 untitled tracks bubble over with the
super-catchy, synth-topped beats and loops you might expect to hear pitching
iMacs or VWs. It's hardly surprising when you consider that Commercial
is the brainchild of D.C.'s Trevor Kampman (HollAnd/Sea Saw) and Sean "Flowbee"
O'Neal of Philly's Flowtron/Flowchart. (Sean is also a CP contributor.)
A good portion of the disc combines Kampman's bubblegummy analog synth-pop
with O'Neal's abstract beats and jokey rave riffs. The result is playful
and catchy, like the soundtrack to an ultra-hip children's television show
- think The Electric Company, electronica style. It'll make you want to
dance the way you did when you were in kindergarten. There are also experimental
tracks, some with snatches of flute and strings wafting over wah-wahed
synth loops and other dreamy, ambient passages that are perhaps just a
little too spooky for nap time.
From Epitonic.com
Do computers ever
get that warm, fuzzy feeling that comes from things like bare feet on plush
new carpet, or grocery shopping after you just got paid? Can a machine
express the feeling of ordering an alcoholic beverage at a fine drinking
establishment, legally, for the very first time on your 21st birthday?
Trevor Kampman (aka Holland) and Sean O'Neal (aka Flowchart) provide the
score for the innocent, giddy young pop life. Party-rockin' breakbeats
jitterbug with spongy, happy synthesizer sounds, cheeky vocal phrases,
and an orchestra of xylophones and tubas that's between gigs recording
soundtracks for Saturday morning cartoons. For further good, clean, fun
audio, see Holland and Flowchart, also on Darla Records.
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