Bill, thanks, that's a fantastic summary. I'm really looking forward to these now, more so than before. I checked the 4 songs on Starethrough, doesn't look like there's any overlap with their full-lengths (or maybe 1 track, i forget). watching a copy of that on eBay right now ;-) so i'll try to snag it for a few bucks.
― stephen, Friday, 12 October 2007 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link
> Also, if you can locate it, their contributions to the Ancient Lights and the Black Core compilation on Sub Rosa are some of the highlights of their later work.
lots very cheap listed on amazon.com. if only i knew a tame american who could pick up a copy for me...
― koogs, Friday, 12 October 2007 17:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Nope, Starethrough is all non-album material. I remember buying it when it came out and wondering if it was the same band that put out Quique--it's that different from its predecessor.
Also, I highly recommend Mark Clifford's collaboration with Simon Kealoha on Clifford's Polyfusia label. Running Taper is the name. It's much more of a software-processed affair than his other work and sorta reclaims the space between Seefeel and Fennesz.
Otherwise, I think the other side projects are less than the sum of the whole band. There are a few Scala tracks that I like, but they never really did much for me. The first Disjecta album is good (because Looking for Snags sounds exactly like Dubstep circa 1995), but after that until the collaboration mentioned above, I unfortunately found Clifford's stuff hit-or-miss to completely uninteresting. If you can find it, Mark Van Hoen (their engineer aka Locust) put out a really good album in the late 90s called Playing with Time.
― Bill in Chicago, Friday, 12 October 2007 18:20 (sixteen years ago) link
I bought the original last week, as it was available used. I used to be a bit ambivalent about Seefeel, but damn, this album is amazing.
― mehlt, Sunday, 21 October 2007 02:21 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.bleep.com/?bleep=FUS005
new release on polyfusia. 4 track ep.
01 - Blue-Fi1 (3:32) - Mark Clifford 02 - Blue-Fi2 (2:58) - Mark Clifford 03 - Prychynna (4:31) - Zaudloka 04 - Rankova (Midnight Edit) (6:49) - Zaudloka
― koogs, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 08:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Listening to Polyfusia right now. Completely forgot how stunningly gorgeous this record is.
― Alex in SF, Friday, 9 May 2008 17:59 (sixteen years ago) link
ah yes, stunning record. i think i'll join you in a spin.
― stephen, Friday, 9 May 2008 23:08 (sixteen years ago) link
It makes me sad that this band isn't as widely revered as, say, The Orb. They really deserve much more praise than they get.
― 26 Mixes Focaccia (Stevie D), Saturday, 13 December 2008 05:39 (fifteen years ago) link
You'd think there would have been primed for some serious critical re-appraisal about 5 years ago or so, when all those MBV-meets-laptronica bands like (early)M83, Ulrich Schnauss & all the Morr acts started popping up all over the place. That shit has Seefeel's fingerprints all over it.
― Cat-Wrangler (Pillbox), Saturday, 13 December 2008 05:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha, I was about to post here saying what Pillbox just said. I finally snagged this reissue over the weekend and hearing it now in 2009 in such a context is breathtaking. But what's interesting is that while it does predate those styles and predicts them, Quique very much is its own sound, and there's things going on almost track for track (like the astonishing bassline on "Industrious") that few of the modern bunch are either able or willing to try.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 30 March 2009 15:32 (fifteen years ago) link
I listened to this on Spotify and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I'll listen to it again now.
― Zayatte Mondatta (country matters), Monday, 30 March 2009 15:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Still prefer Ulrich Schnauss, mind. :p
― Zayatte Mondatta (country matters), Monday, 30 March 2009 15:39 (fifteen years ago) link
This album came out right around the time I started buying CDs (instead of tapes, ya I M old) and somehow I never got around to buying it on CD or on vinyl, even though I had virtually everything else in Seefeel's catalogue on one of those formats. So basically, since all of my tapes are stashed away somewhere now, I hadn't listened to "Quique" in ages before I bought the reissue. And yeah, it was astonishing to hear it again. It sounds so fresh, novel, and unpredictable these days, which is weird because at the time a lot of people dismissed them as MBV/Cocteau Twins rip-off fetishists!
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah this is a 10/10 star totally great album, unfuckwithable. I dug out the reissue last week also and listened to it and was of course blown away.
Does anyone rate the stuff that comes after Quique? I like Polyfusia well enough but haven't given much time to Ch-Vox or that other record of theirs that came later...
― ilxor, Monday, 30 March 2009 18:52 (fifteen years ago) link
The Starethrough EP is pretty great!
― f. hazel, Monday, 30 March 2009 19:10 (fifteen years ago) link
anything with "starethrough" on it is necessarily gonna be great, but which one? the warp cd one or the white label?
― GÖDEL ESCHER BOCK BOCK BOCK (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 01:24 (fifteen years ago) link
aren't they the same?
― f. hazel, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 05:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Still prefer Ulrich Schnauss, mind. :pCraziest talk on ILX yet!
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 09:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Succor remains my favorite Seefeel by a mile.... they've lost some of the shoegazing qualities, in favor of a more ambient/dub/isolationist character. One of the best things Rephlex ever released; still can't understand why this hasn't gotten a reissue.
http://www.discogs.com/Seefeel-Succour/release/3617
― pshrbrn, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 09:16 (fifteen years ago) link
there's things going on almost track for track (like the astonishing bassline on "Industrious") that few of the modern bunch are either able or willing to try
Mebbe cuz the Seefeel guys were at one point rockers? Whereas I could never truly accept M83 as a rock act. Most of Seefeel's distinctiveness, to me, from a 2009 standpoint comes from the feeling that the boundaries between electronic music and rock are still porous.
― death from abroad (lukas), Monday, 4 May 2009 19:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Seefeel fans, set those turntables to stun! Hot off the heels of Too Pure’s revamped reissuance of the late, lamented London quartet’s 1993 opus Quique, we are beyond thrilled to announce that we’ll bringing this outstanding release to your hi-fi as a 4-platter vinyl set early next year. This fabtabulous offering will be limited to 500 copies (100 of them blue) and brought to you in beautiful gatefold packaging. Nearly 15 years after its debut, this daring exercise in ambient glory sounds every bit as ambitious as it did then, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to rediscover this long out-of-print masterwork in fantastic wax.
That was late 2007 on a clairecords newsletter, guess it never happened.
― svend, Monday, 4 May 2009 22:58 (fifteen years ago) link
i thought this was pronounced KEE-KAY, like the diminutive of Enrique. Thank you strongo hulkington (RIP) for educating me so i don't make a faux-pas in a hypothetical future Seafeel conversation that I may have.
― Suggesteban Cambiasso (jim), Monday, 4 May 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I prefer the Moby Dick pronunciation of "kwee-kway" but whatever, it's gorgeous.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 5 May 2009 06:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I was sure it was "Keek", at least that's what I remember.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 5 May 2009 08:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I have been mentally pronouncing it as "kweekweh" but that is because I keep thinking it's a Latin word like "quisque" or "quoque" and it isn't. But as yet I've never had any call to talk about it out loud.
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 5 May 2009 10:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Whoops, Succour was on Warp (as the link I provided showed!). And MP3s are available on Bleep.com! Let the record show that I'm an idiot.
― pshrbrn, Tuesday, 5 May 2009 11:37 (fifteen years ago) link
"Keek" is how reviewers were describing the pronunciation at the time...while we on the topic, how's Tricky's debut pronounced?...Max-In-Kway or Max-In-Key?...or neither?...or both?
― henry s, Tuesday, 5 May 2009 14:16 (fifteen years ago) link
had not actually encountered this record before finding it the other day; love the way everything just billows outwards around those basslines.
do you think they'll give the re-ish treatment to any of the other stuff? probably gets a bit complicated when it's spread over different labels.
― the shane bourne identity (haitch), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 02:26 (fourteen years ago) link
The last School of Seven Bells EP has a remix by Seefeel ("Chain") - didn't seem to attract much attention?
― with hidden noise, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 02:29 (fourteen years ago) link
I recently emailed Too Pure begging them to reissue all the other stuff. Still regard "Quique" as severely underrated
― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 02:39 (fourteen years ago) link
could listen to 'climactic phase #3' all day - like the long, slow-morph patterns that spiritualized were mining circa pure phase.
― the shane bourne identity (haitch), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:50 (fourteen years ago) link
i was just listening to "succour" this morning, it's weird how their whole career was like their music decaying into its most basic elements. and then on ch-vox they lost EVERYTHING but the guitar.
― ETERNAL WAR AGAINST THE DICKS IS ALL WE CAN RESPECT (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:51 (fourteen years ago) link
― the shane bourne identity (haitch), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
So funny you say that; I've been really into Pure Phase recently and the two share a very distinct connection
― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 04:05 (fourteen years ago) link
definitely my fave spiritualized record. as much as i like the next couple of records, i kinda wish j spaceman had pushed the pure phase envelope a bit further!
― the shane bourne identity (haitch), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 04:34 (fourteen years ago) link
New EP coming out on the 21st. "Faults." On Warp. Excited!
― Metal Lifestyle, Evil, Hatred, Headbanging (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 12 September 2010 02:26 (thirteen years ago) link
http://media.warp.net/images/WARPCD205Packshot_480.jpg
Out 7th February 11Vinyl, Download & CDWARP207
Digital Tracklisting
01 - O-on one02 - Dead Guitars03 - Step Up04 - Faults05 - Gzaug06 - Rip-run07 - Making08 - Step Down09 - Airless
link
― Harrison Buttwhistle (NickB), Saturday, 23 October 2010 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Hmm. Didn't expect that as a cover.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 October 2010 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I saw them the other night - my second time since they came back. As support for the NEU - Rother / Shelley thing they were pretty fantastic. As a headline last month at the ICA - meh, not so much.
At the Barbican the other night they were great and I don't think they played many (any?) of the older tracks. The Japanese bass and drums really took over I felt. For the best - loved it. Looking forward to new releases,
― kraudive, Sunday, 24 October 2010 00:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Anyone heard the Faults EP? Any good?
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Sunday, 24 October 2010 00:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Hoooooly shit I'm kicking myself for not having heard it yet. I'm two tracks in right now and it's VERY good; this will probably be in my year-end top 10.
― mother cabrini maxwell (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, 24 October 2010 03:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh, they definitely played older material at the Barbican. I'm never good with track names but at the very least they did Time To Find Me.
And yeah, that show made me want to hear the new album now.
― Wheal Dream, Sunday, 24 October 2010 09:29 (thirteen years ago) link
woah I had no idea these dudes reformed! also: cool EP cover
PS thank you ILM for getting me to buy the quique reissue when it first came out, that was a good choice
― quique da snique (bernard snowy), Sunday, 24 October 2010 12:02 (thirteen years ago) link
ah fuck I used my new display name to post in the thread that inspired it, PARTY FOUL
― quique da snique (bernard snowy), Sunday, 24 October 2010 12:43 (thirteen years ago) link
faults is very good, yes. can't decide whether track 4 (which is a lot emptier) is the best or worst thing on it though.
ooh, new gig date, 31st jan. king's place too.
― koogs, Sunday, 24 October 2010 20:37 (thirteen years ago) link
btw, the warp link above says you can get free copy of Faults ep for signing up to their seefeel info list.
― koogs, Sunday, 24 October 2010 20:42 (thirteen years ago) link
I am not liking Faults so far. I want to, but it just sounds kinda cheesy and bad and not very Seefeel to me.
― BENDLESS WOOKIEE (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 25 October 2010 02:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Just checked the Warp link - you get the song, not the whole EP, if you sign up.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Monday, 25 October 2010 14:19 (thirteen years ago) link
ah, ok, just the track for signing up. down a bit it says:
"Preorder at Bleep now to receive the new Faults EP for free instantly(offer expires 17 December 2010)"
― koogs, Monday, 25 October 2010 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I see Succour is available from Bleep on CD again... the original release somehow got lost in the shuffle, but it's a really good album!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 25 October 2010 18:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Succour was too sparse and not textured enough IMO. The best part of Quique was that it feels so dense; you could get lost in it.
― mother cabrini maxwell (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 25 October 2010 22:51 (thirteen years ago) link
on disc 2 track 9, you can hear them striking the same rib twice in succession yet they produce two clearly different tones
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Saturday, 15 May 2021 18:40 (three years ago) link
I emailed Warp on Friday (Aus time) so will see if I get a reply when they wake up today...I got my copy from Bleep, so the digital copies from Bleep are definitely affected.You can tell from the track lengths on Bandcamp that they are too.
FYI I made an edit of "Monastic" to get rid of the glitch - used some identical bars from later on.Don't want to share here because copyright, but if you own it and want to listen properly, DM me? (I'm here so rarely I don't even know how that works!)
― raven, Sunday, 16 May 2021 23:05 (three years ago) link
Monastic is a previously-unreleased track, no? Maybe the glitch is meant to be there.
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Sunday, 16 May 2021 23:31 (three years ago) link
raven's fix is nice btw, invisible mending, i was impressed.
i would say from both hearing and seeing that it's not deliberate. it occurs only once and the hole is too ragged, the silence too flat.
― koogs, Monday, 17 May 2021 01:59 (three years ago) link
Thanks koogs, yeah I've done this before :)Agreed, it's not deliberate. There's actually part of at least a bar missing, and a tiny bit of pure silence. It's a mistake.
Haven't heard back from Warp yet (but then why would they reply to some random? Well, maybe they will.)
― raven, Monday, 17 May 2021 08:51 (three years ago) link
Fairly certain that if you're suggesting something is faulty then they should/would.
― djh, Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:41 (three years ago) link
They ain't, I'm afraid.I just posted a comment on Warp's Facebook page to try and get their attention :)
― raven, Friday, 21 May 2021 12:46 (three years ago) link
These might be sourced from downmix DATs so could it be a tape dropout/error?
― assert (MatthewK), Friday, 21 May 2021 20:29 (three years ago) link
I decided to fire up Audacity and fix the Monastic glitch as well... it's pretty wild that we're at a point where we (well, we're probably more on the nerd end of society than the average) can just kinda casually correct such errors and get on with things... sure the glitch is on the CD, but I listen to the FLACs or mp3s 99% of the time so
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Sunday, 30 May 2021 18:39 (three years ago) link
So nobody ever got a reply from Warp about this, hey?They're just gonna slide on, pretending there's nothing wrong?
― raven, Wednesday, 9 June 2021 13:34 (three years ago) link
I read on the Hoffman forum that they are fixing it for the second pressing. I understand they have withdrawn the first pressing for sale. Its listed as 'available in mid July' or something. A manufacturing error that is not on the DATs.
― ringworm, Wednesday, 9 June 2021 16:56 (three years ago) link
I wonder if that's why I never got my physical copy?
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Wednesday, 9 June 2021 16:58 (three years ago) link
Interesting to hear, ringworm! Wonder if those of us who got the first pressing (at least direct) will get a fix...
― raven, Thursday, 10 June 2021 03:41 (three years ago) link
I thought if anyone was gonna complain about audio quality/glitches they'd be all over it. Sure'nuff a quick google turned up their thread! https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/seefeel-reissues-may-14-2021.1076263/
― ringworm, Thursday, 10 June 2021 08:17 (three years ago) link
Someone pasted this from Bleep, I think"We are aware of this, yes. I have been speaking to the production team at Warp today and they are hoping to get these issues resolved asap in terms of replacing discs (including for those who have already purchased) and updating the digital downloads where necessary"
― ringworm, Thursday, 10 June 2021 08:19 (three years ago) link
Interesting to read in the Simon Reynolds interview that "Charlotte's Mouth" turned into "Starethrough" which then turned into "Ch-vox" – been listening to those for years, but never caught the (pretty clear) similarity until playing them one after another.
― with hidden noise, Friday, 11 June 2021 01:36 (three years ago) link
new interview here:
https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-070-seefeel
― disraeli grinds my gears (NickB), Monday, 28 June 2021 13:45 (two years ago) link
Great interview!
I wonder if Mark and Sarah ever saw this? (forward to 9'59")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLGs41vQ8EU
― Maresn3st, Monday, 28 June 2021 14:10 (two years ago) link
"Sarah lived in Basingstoke!" was one of my main takeaways from the interview (I also did).
― djh, Monday, 28 June 2021 18:27 (two years ago) link
KMRU mix: https://bleep.com/release/257438-seefeel-rapture-to-rupt
(or a free version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFaIBt7Akz4)
― djh, Wednesday, 1 December 2021 19:38 (two years ago) link
call me when they make another album with the self-title lineup
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 1 December 2021 22:29 (two years ago) link
one of the kids on Junior Bake-Off is called 'Quique'
(kee-kay they are pronouncing it, i've always put a w in it, or two)
― koogs, Monday, 10 January 2022 17:47 (two years ago) link
just “keek” isn’t it? Poor kid.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 10 January 2022 19:33 (two years ago) link
It's been a name in Spanish for at least a century if not longer, but sounds like ki-kay.
― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Monday, 10 January 2022 19:38 (two years ago) link
Oh that’s good to know, I just imagined it was some sad dude like myself imposing his idea of taste. Glad I was merely ignorant.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 10 January 2022 20:10 (two years ago) link
Now his brother Filter Dub...
― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Monday, 10 January 2022 20:16 (two years ago) link
Any idea if ordering this now gets the corrected CDs without the two issues noted above? Anyone ordered a copy recently?
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 11 January 2022 16:18 (two years ago) link
Mark is interviewed in this RA podcast from a couple of months back:https://ra.co/exchange/586
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Thursday, 20 January 2022 19:17 (two years ago) link