Yves Tumor
Location: Miami, Florida, USA
Genre: Hypnagogia, Art Rock, Psychedelic Gospel
Years Active: 2010 -
Real Name: Sean Bowie
Meaning of the Name: A combination of a word signifying high quality and one signifying decay.
Way of Working: Singular artistic vision
Associated: Silkbless, Teamm Jordann
Essential Releases
Safe in the Hands
of Love (2018)
Debut album. Luxurious ambient textures meet glitch.
Heaven to a
Tortured Mind (2020)
The use of guitars provides extra bite and greater emotional range.
Unpredictability and otherness are central to the music of Yves Tumor (real name Sean Bowie). His kinetic rock-psychedelic gospel ambient work is strangely glamorous, yet deeply unsettling in a way that feels unclean, as if it transgresses moral lines or ignores them entirely, like they were never worth paying attention to in the first place.
This rejection likely stems from Bowie's early life as a queer, black non-binary person in the suffocating piety of Knoxville, Tennessee, a Christian conservative city located in the heart of the Bible Belt. It's only natural for a person to reject morality that views their behaviour as "demonic", as some in such places view homosexuality.
On stage, Bowie wears a variety of outlandish costumes and deliberately paints himself as the freak, the weirdo, or the outsider. In his videos, he dresses as the devil and cavorts in an androgynous hellscape, delighting in a role sure to shock his former neighbours. To be the other is the point.
By wholeheartedly embracing a position many would seek to avoid, Bowie is granted power. Occupying such a role through choice, he can subvert the idea of the sacred and the profane through association. If he is profane, he determines what profane is.
As such, in the 'Gospel for a New Century' music video, Bowie sings in the familiar religious style about sexual desire and hedonism, associating the iconography of hell with queerness to reject heteronormative Christian values.
From a sonic perspective, the fluidity of sounds is reminiscent of changing emotional states. From the serene calm of ambient soundscapes to the burning guitar solos of tracks like 'Kerosene', Bowie never grants the listener comfortable familiarity.
Instead, we have raw emotion played out through a series of unabashed characters that reject identity as a settled state in favour of evolving collage. Jagged punk gives way to the soft velvet of glam rock, for a track or two at least, before a hypnotic effort enchants the listener. To this point, Bowie has released music under various names including: Teams, Bekelé Berhanu, Rajel Ali, and Shanti to list but a few.
By adopting stage personas, Sean Bowie protects himself. Yves Tumor becomes a sword and shield that can be wielded to publicly disavow social norms from the psychological safety of the stage.
Skills
*This is a work in progress. Values are subjective.Emotional Impact
65
Mental Impact
65
Originality
90
Artistry
100
Authenticity
55
Live
70
Production
80
Musicianship
70
Singing
70
Songwriting
80
Danceability
70
Fun
70
Consistency
70
Range
80
Cool
60
Charisma
30
Commercial & Critical Success
Awards
Certifications
Charts
Critics >>>
- Consequence: Praise a Lord Who Chews... - The Best Albums of 2023 : 1st
- Noisey: Serpent Music - The 33 Best Albums of 2016: 13th
- Pitchfork: Safe in the Hands of Love - The Best Albums of 2018: 10th
- Pitchfork: Heaven to a Tortured Mind - Top 10 Albums of 2020 : 7th
- The Line of Best Fit: Heaven to a Tortured Mind - Top 10 Albums of 2020 : 8th
- The Skinny: Heaven to a Tortured Mind - Top 10 Albums of 2020 : 4th
- Tiny Mix-Tapes: Safe in the Hands of Love - Favorite 50 Music Releases 2018: 2nd
