Southeast Engine: From The Forest To The Sea

There isn’t much extraordinary about the actual music of Ohio indie-rock act Southeast Engine. The band combines twangy guitars, rattling percussion, and rinky-dink organ into something that should be familiar to anyone who frequents funky record stores near college campuses. But bandleader Adam Remnant has a strong voice—trembly and nasal, yet on-pitch—and on Southeast Engine’s fifth album, From The Forest To The Sea, he uses that voice to guide the band through intricately constructed songs ranging from slow country two-steppers to stomping garage-rock. Remnant sings about far-reaching quests for redemption (starting with a three-part ode to the forest, and ending in baptism by flood), and though he never lets his sense of the epic push Southeast Engine into outright bombast, From The Forest To The Sea does maintain an undeniable sense of gravity. Southeast Engine makes tuneful music that means to arrest listeners by turning familiar sounds into spiritually engaged, rock ’n’ roll theater.