Biography

A longtime pillar of the Chicago underground community, Sam Prekop was best known for his work creating the post-rock sound with the Sea and Cake before he began crafting adventurous solo albums as well. Beginning with an eponymous album in 1999, Prekop gradually shifted his sound from breezy post-rock not dissimilar from his main band into explorations of modular synthesis on 2010's Old Punch Card. By the 2020s, he was exclusively making rhythm-driven instrumental electronic music, teaming with longtime Sea and Cake collaborator John McEntire for their first work as a duo on the entirely instrumental 2022 album Sons Of, and releasing solo electronic work of his own like 2020's Comma and 2022's The Sparrow. Prekop first gained renown at the helm of Shrimp Boat before becoming the leader of the Sea and Cake, whose fusion of styles both in and out of rock was both creative and experimental while remaining highly listenable. Prekop holds considerable stature in the Chicago scene, so it isn't surprising that when he released his self-titled debut solo LP in 1999 (on Thrill Jockey Records, itself a cornerstone in the Chicago music scene), it featured an impressive supporting cast, including Chad Taylor of the Chicago Underground Duo, Josh Abrams of Town and Country, Jim O'Rourke, and the Sea and Cake's Archer Prewitt. The album played like a subtler, more organic version of the Sea and Cake, blending elements of African rhythms with soul, jazz, and pop. The Sea and Cake remained an active band after the record's release, and his follow-up, Who's Your New Professor, didn't arrive until 2005. Prekop's third long-player, Old Punch Card, took a turn away from his regular fare toward an almost completely electronic palette. The instrumental album was released in 2010 by Thrill Jockey and was followed five years later by The Republic, another collection of electronic instrumentals made with modular synthesizers, drum machines, and other various synthetic elements. Half the pieces on the album were initially composed as a score for a show by video installation artist David Hartt. In 2020, Prekop continued his exploration of rhythm-driven electronic sounds with the glowing, futuristic album Comma. In June 2022, he issued the 22-minute instrumental track "Saturday Sunday," and one month later joined forces with longtime friend and bandmate John McEntire for the release of an album of electronic instrumentals and modular synthesizer sounds entitled Sons Of. The set consisted of just four extended pieces, one of which first took shape as a live improvisation and grew into its final form in the studio. Shortly after that, Prekop returned with new solo set The Sparrow, also surfacing before 2022 was over. The record found him using his usual modular synth setup as well as some polyphonic keyboard synthesizers for spare songs inspired in part by soundtracks from obscure films of the '70s. ~ Stacia Proefrock & Fred Thomas, Rovi