Seawind of Battery “Save The Waves: People For Public Media”

‘Experimental psychedelia with ambient americana’ to highlight the defunding of US public media.

This compilation album may not be everyone’s idea of americana. Taken on its own, it might not have even made the review pages of AUK. That is not to say there is not a lot of music here that is well worth a listen, including some fabulously psychedelic fusions, but it is the album’s creator, Mike Horn’s, motivation that strikes the most resounding chord. His inspiration was to draw attention to the potential elimination of federal funding for public media. That threat became reality a few days ago, on July 18, when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cease federal funding for public media. This is devastating news for the millions of US citizens for whom publicly funded media is a vital source of information. Many local stations, whether broadcasting news, education, music or other topics, will face financial hardship and worse as a result of this action.

We shall come to the music shortly, but to do justice to the efforts of all involved, it is worth understanding how federal funding of public media works and its audience. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit membership organisation, was created by Congress in 1967 to act as a buffer between the government and public media, to help ensure editorial independence. Its “direct annual appropriation” is around $500m, of which roughly 70% goes straight to local public television and radio stations. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), also a private and non-profit organisation, also gets support from the CPB to distribute programming to its member stations. Although federal support accounts for around 15% of public broadcasting revenues overall, what is critical to this piece is that support is not evenly distributed across all recipients. Small rural stations often rely on this funding for 50% or more of their budget. That is a lot of donations and grants from state and local governments to fill.

These stations provide free educational content, particularly for children. Lower-income families would lose access to high-quality educational resources. Similarly, these local stations, typically in rural areas, are often the sole source of local news and weather alerts as well as entertainment. This is not a service valued by President Trump, who, on May 1, signed an executive order to defund public broadcasting. On his Truth Social platform, he referred to the PBS and CPB as “radical left monsters who harm our country” with their “biased and partisan news coverage.” Unsurprisingly, public media funding was in the firing line of Elon Musk’s DOGE. Of course, there is resistance. The CPB, PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) have filed suits on grounds that the defunding order is unconstitutional and threatens freedom of the press. But if the courts do not intervene, many local stations could shut down by late summer. Though it will be a few months before the effects of this decision take proper hold, Mike Horn’s gloomiest prognosis has already come to pass.

If this is the longest ever intro for an album review, many apologies, but this reviewer hopes there are readers who share his interest in regional radio shows. Naturally, these tend to focus on americana, but regardless of subject, many now face closure. But now to the music. Mike Horn is a musician based in New York, whose Seawind of Battery, in partnership with steel guitarist Jarrod Annis, is more of a project than just a band. “Experimental psychedelia with ambient americana” is how they describe themselves. Listening to their soundscapes offers a “sonic balm for existential anxiety”. And that is all you really need to know. There are no lyrics, just calming wave upon wave of rich sound to ease the troubled mind.

Seawind of Battery’s ‘Disappearing’ sets the scene as it dips and bobs while looping round and round. Their ‘Park Life Jam’, recorded live in San Francisco with another of the bands on the record, Aux Meadows, is more hypnotic still and could easily have fitted into The Summer  of Love. Jarrod Annis, on his own, offers ‘A Reverie of Strawberries’, a flow of improvised acoustic guitar runs.

The Modern Folk Electronic Ensemble is just that, their ‘Living History’ perhaps more modern than folk. Possibly more traditional is finger-style guitarist Jon Camp, who blends twang and drone on the relaxing ‘Chipping at the Margins’. Prairiewolf specialise in experimental americana, ‘Lighthouse’ being an even dreamier experience than most others, in particular contrast to Dave Heumann’s ‘Rustwind Holler’ fuzz drones. These are just a few. They are all worth listening to several times.

As absorbing as these tracks are, it is hard not to think of how musicians such as these are to reach their audience. ‘Save The Waves: People For Public Media’ is released on limited edition cassette and digitally, but if those local radio stations are not around, who is going to give it an airing? Life for musicians just got harder still. Huge praise to Mike Horn and all the musicians who made this record happen. It is to be hoped this is the first of many with similar intentions.

If anyone is still here, you might be interested to know that the most detailed UK account of these events I found is in ‘The Guardian’, and for an example of their potential impact, here is something from a radio station, WMOT Roots Radio, who play americana music to Nashville and Middle Tennessee. There will be many others.