anticon. records

artist info

Before you meet SJ Esau, you’re going to have to forget a few things you haven’t yet learned. For instance, that at the tender age of 10, he was halfway through a four-year rap career in the burgeoning late-’80s Bristol scene. Erase from your memory the image of a young Samuel Wisternoff (as he’s known to his mother) with microphone in hand, freestyling with 3D from Massive Attack at a local party. Forget that it was Tricky who turned the scrappy little lad onto the great adventures of Slick Rick. And that under the name TFP, Sam (still 10 years old) and his older brother were signed to Smith & Mighty’s prestigious Three Stripe Records. Most importantly, put it out of your mind that before retiring from the rap game at 12, Sam battled his way to second place in the cutthroat DMC emceeing championships.

Though Sam still has the tape that started it all—a hip-hop mix his father made for him, culled and compiled from the John Peel show—his pre-pubescent life might as well have been someone else’s entirely. SJ Esau, as you’ll now know him, is a master manipulator of organic sounds, a singer with a sense of humor and an ear for the beautifully bizarre, and a maker of expansive and explosive ventures into the unexplored musical back alleys of Great Britain. His corner of Bristol is a rarified junction where bedroom rambles and aural collage meet inspired collaboration and true song. It’s more Pavement and Low than De La Soul, though his love for all three is no doubt equal.

While his brother Jody went off to pursue dreams of becoming a world-renowned deep house DJ/producer (see Way Out West), SJ Esau was busy carving out the most unique of existences for himself. Through a number of band incarnations (for instance, the Sonic Youth- and Pixies-inspired outfit, the Pudding), various solo explorations (from raw acoustics to layered noise works), and ongoing collaborative projects (the harsh, loop-driven Onanist Homework Robot & the Guano Ignoramus; as well as the prettily apocalyptic Jeremy Smoking Jacket with singer Rose Kemp), SJ has developed his own carefully constructed brand of chaos which neither repeats itself nor spins wild beyond the realm of comprehension.

With three and a half SJ Esau LPs under his belt (and Stop Touching My Cat, a compilation of reworked SJ originals featuring WHY? among others), Wisternoff brought his impressive body of work to Anticon in 2007, releasing the internationally ballyhooed Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse that spring. In 2008, he returns with Small Vessel, threatening to once again change what we think we know about the man and his music. Of course, some constants have remained throughout: Sam Wisternoff still lives in Bristol, and is surrounded by a still under-publicized community of hard-working artists poised to start a revolution in sound. He has two cats (who occasionally provide backing vocals), admires the works of Kurt Vonnegut, and is usually confused, which seems to work out just fine for the rest of us.

(permanent link)

photos

related releases

Small Vessel
abr0085

Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse
abr0070

complete discography

artist news

May 08, 2009

For a limited time the Anticon store is carrying SJ Esau's self-released covers collection, The Gist?. Only 100 of these CDs were made, wherein Samuel promises to "ruin" the works of Gnarls Barkley, They Might Be Giants, Broadcast, and others. See the advert below.

March 25, 2009

SJ Esau has contributed a new song to an upcoming entry in One Inch Badge Records' super-limited split seven-inch series. The song, "Part Of A Diagram," appears alongside music from Half-Handed Cloud, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, and Kopek. The video is below.

August 18, 2008

SJ Esau's Small Vessel is still landing solid press response. Read PopMatters' excellent review here.

July 07, 2008

Over the July 4 holiday Pitchfork.tv premiered the new video for "Under Certain Things" from SJ Esau's Small Vessel. Thanks to director David Petch. Check it out here:

June 05, 2008

The package order-deals for SJ Esau's Small Vessel and Odd Nosdam's Pretty Swell Explode are now available over in the anticon store.

Reserve your copy of Small Vessel with More Touching, an 18-track collection of remixes and reworkings of SJ Esau songs featuring the likes of anticon's own Sole and Bracken. Limited to only 100 copies!

Also available is Pretty Swell Explode accompanied by 15 Minutes of Funk, a 10-track collection of Nosdam's heavy beat rarities featuring:

- 4 previously unreleased jams
- 411 Video Magazine's theme song remix !
- Method Man's 'P.L.O. Style' remix !!
- Sole, Jel, Pedestrian, and WHY? !!!

Also limited to only 100 copies. Check the store for more info.

Also, Dosh's Wolves And Wishes LPs are finally in stock, as are Odd Nosdam's Pretty Swell Explode 2xLPs! Order now.

July 25, 2007

If you haven't already checked out the newest addition to the anticon podcast, make sure to check out SJ Esau's choice selections available now in our podcast section and via iTunes.