Biography
During an era when low-cost instruments and digital production tools have normalized music whose expressive range amounts to little more than cursor movements, greater attention belongs to talents such as Boston-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Nat Rabb, who records as San Serac. Operating as a solitary post-Napster figure, he writes, performs, and mixes every track himself, mounts one-person concerts supported only by minimal rhythm beds, and oversees the independent Frog Man Jake imprint that handles all aspects of his releases. Although parallels with Prince or Todd Rundgren are routinely drawn, this resolutely non-mainstream artist remains far from comparable renown yet displays a comparable singularity through suave disco-house arrangements that showcase genuine instrumental command and a pale, expressionless vocal style akin to David Bowie’s.
Active in Baltimore post-punk ensembles since the early 1990s, Rabb simultaneously maintained a longstanding devotion to new wave synth pop and electro-R&B, above all the work of Shalamar and Midnight Star; that affinity later converged with his immersion in classic disco and house. Evoking the inventive stylistic cross-pollination practiced by post-disco producers Larry Levan and Arthur Russell, he reactivated his childhood cassette label Frog Man Jake in the early 2000s, converting the operation into a vehicle for limited-edition CD-Rs of his unorthodox explorations. The first official San Serac album, Human Savagery Is a Slippery Slope, appeared in 2001. An intricate weave of 1970s FM rock, synthesized funk, and simulated quiet storm material, the record earned spins from U.K. broadcaster John Peel, though its opaque lyrics—sincere political allegory embedded in tangled subconscious imagery—left reviewers perplexed.
A well-received British tour preceded the follow-up album Ice Age in 2004, which foregrounded additional dance elements, most prominently MIDI-triggered timbales that became a fixture of his live sets. A brief association with Trevor Jackson’s Output label resulted in the 12-inch single “Tyrant,” a standout from San Serac’s third album, Professional, issued in 2007. Unwilling to remain within one idiom, Rabb formed productive alliances with ex-Junior Boys programmer Johnny Dark (Stereo Image), Michaelann Zimmerman (the Internet), and French electronic producer Para One (Slice and Soda), then delivered the EP Music Never Ends in 2009 on Morgan Geist’s Environ imprint.
Active in Baltimore post-punk ensembles since the early 1990s, Rabb simultaneously maintained a longstanding devotion to new wave synth pop and electro-R&B, above all the work of Shalamar and Midnight Star; that affinity later converged with his immersion in classic disco and house. Evoking the inventive stylistic cross-pollination practiced by post-disco producers Larry Levan and Arthur Russell, he reactivated his childhood cassette label Frog Man Jake in the early 2000s, converting the operation into a vehicle for limited-edition CD-Rs of his unorthodox explorations. The first official San Serac album, Human Savagery Is a Slippery Slope, appeared in 2001. An intricate weave of 1970s FM rock, synthesized funk, and simulated quiet storm material, the record earned spins from U.K. broadcaster John Peel, though its opaque lyrics—sincere political allegory embedded in tangled subconscious imagery—left reviewers perplexed.
A well-received British tour preceded the follow-up album Ice Age in 2004, which foregrounded additional dance elements, most prominently MIDI-triggered timbales that became a fixture of his live sets. A brief association with Trevor Jackson’s Output label resulted in the 12-inch single “Tyrant,” a standout from San Serac’s third album, Professional, issued in 2007. Unwilling to remain within one idiom, Rabb formed productive alliances with ex-Junior Boys programmer Johnny Dark (Stereo Image), Michaelann Zimmerman (the Internet), and French electronic producer Para One (Slice and Soda), then delivered the EP Music Never Ends in 2009 on Morgan Geist’s Environ imprint.
Albums