[Mobilee]

How much stock listeners put into track titles is usually relative to how it sounds. For example, Martin Buttrich’s “Hunter” aurally portrayed the food chain in progress and Daniel Wang’s “Berlin Sunrise” captured the glowing warmth emerging from the horizon. By contrast, Tiger Stripes’ “Mad At Me” is hardly an aggressive or even upset tune and Argy’s “Unreliable Virgin,” well, you get the picture. And it’s not that track titles necessarily need to mirror their contents; plenty of artists I know name their work at the very end as merely a necessary afterthought. But sometimes the disparity between a track’s title and sound practically writes its own critique. Take Sebo K’s latest single, a single-sided limited run release on Mobilee. Emblazoned with loud, colorful cover art (by Paul Snowden, who also designed the flipside etching) and entitled “Far Out,” one might expect a wonky romp to wild out to.

In reality, “Far Out” offers something much more buttoned down and far inside Sebo’s comfort zone. It’s not an awful track, don’t get me wrong; the knifing, distorted synth riff which rips through rhythm and melody alike is enough to justify its existence (a slew of DJs listed on the Word&Sound page tend to agree). Besides that, there’s little to distinguish “Far Out” as Sebo K’s, or from the hundreds of other producers with the same VSTs who add me on Myspace. He puts forth a conventional house beat, two rote marimba progressions, a couple percussive touches, a few spacey synth doodles and calls it a day. Given his year of solid remixes (the “Bell Clap Dance” remix is huge and underrated, for one) and DJing (Back Up Vol. 1, for two), I know Sebo is capable of more. It’s just going to take a little more effort and maybe a better title or two.