seefeel thread for discussion of relevant informations pertaining to the "quique redux" 2cd superbonus reissue (and other seefeel matters)

it's a nice enough addition.

So, i just picked up all the Seefeel albums...

_Quique
_Succour
_Ch-Vox

...the other day, as well as the EP collection...

_Polyfusia

...and am wondering, what's the best place to start listening to these albums? Should I go chronologically, or in some other order, and why? Also, what are the highlights of each disc, or what should I be on the lookout (listenout?) for with each one? Any other thoughts on Seefeel in general, or these albums?

Thanks, ILM.

The three Polyfusia releases are cheap on bleep currently - new disjecta ep, autechre remix of spangle and Clifford's new album with Kealoha(?)

http://www.bleep.com/?label=Polyfusia

stephen, choronologically, because they get weirder (and, to me, more interesting). the Ch-Vox is a lot like the Disjecta things on warp rather than Seefeely. Fracture / Tied and Starethrough EPs also essential i think.

Fracture / Tied and Starethrough EPs also essential i think.
-- koogs, Friday, October 12, 2007 9:01 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

hey thanks!

(by which i assume you mean, those two EPs have some pretty nice exclusives, yes?)

yes, and are also some of the best things they've done. plus i like the cover of fracture / tied - designers republic, nice heavy orange card, silver ink, slight embossing...

also worth a listen:
isan remix of when face was face
http://www.cocteautwins.com/html/discography/discog_23.html (cocteaus remixed by clifford)
2x disjecta mini lps on warp

oh wow! i have that Cocteaus EP, think it's pleasant enough for late Cocteaus material but i haven't given it more than a couple spins really. i had no idea some guy from Seefeel was involved either. i'll have to pull that out tomorrow, then...

thanks!

anyone else?

Listen to them chronologically as there is definitely a development of their sound and it can be divided into two halves: Too Pure releases and post-Too Pure releases. While the first ep (More Like Space) doesn't sound like a rock band, except for the last track, you can get a sense of rock composition from the songs. This gets thrown out the window on Plainsong when they start adding more and more layers and definitely go for a machine vibe. Quique has moments when it sounds like a rock band, but most of all it's the pinnacle of layering and density in the early sound. Imperial is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

When they switched to Warp (you really should get Starethrough because it's fucking incredible), they started to strip back the elements so that by the time you get to Ch-Vox, it's so sparse, it's almost like listening to sonar blips. There are some fine moments on these records, but I admit I prefer the earlier ones more. 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.

What Bill said.

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.

> 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...

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.

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.

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

Listening to Polyfusia right now. Completely forgot how stunningly gorgeous this record is.

ah yes, stunning record. i think i'll join you in a spin.

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.

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.

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.

I listened to this on Spotify and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I'll listen to it again now.

Still prefer Ulrich Schnauss, mind. :p

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!

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...

The Starethrough EP is pretty great!

anything with "starethrough" on it is necessarily gonna be great, but which one? the warp cd one or the white label?

aren't they the same?

Still prefer Ulrich Schnauss, mind. :p
Craziest talk on ILX yet!

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

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.

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.

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.

I prefer the Moby Dick pronunciation of "kwee-kway" but whatever, it's gorgeous.

I was sure it was "Keek", at least that's what I remember.

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.

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.

"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?

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.

hmm i mean this one, anyway: http://www.discogs.com/Disjecta-Clean-Pit-And-Lid-Promo/master/2452

yeah i love that one

i was thinking of "looking for snags" EP as an album i guess

that one has "kracht", massive beat

the cd ep was originally (simultaneously?) two 12" eps. and has 8 long tracks so you could count it as a compilation lp.

there was a later, self-released disjecta ep on polyfusion, same label as put out the autechre remix of spangle. and almost nothing else: http://www.discogs.com/label/14963-Polyfusia-Records

actually, those two mark clifford eps, #003 and #005 are great. and that second was my first exposure to zavoloka who is worth investigating (ukrainian analogue glitch). (004 was advertised, iirc, as a mira calix release. don't think it ever appeared)

there were a couple of other disjecta tracks on compilations that i have. invisible soundtracks #1, er, others. (oh, discogs says that autechre All Tomorrow Parties lp and one i don't have on Sub Rosa)

two hour seefeel special on nts this afternoon, ch2 16:00-18:00 BST:

https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-seefeel-12-th-april-2019

I loved that 2011 album, wish they’d done more with that lineup

they played a couple of european dates this february to celebrate the 25th anniversary of quique - not sure who was in the band though

still love listening to Eyes Alpha/Be Together from Scala's "To You in Alpha"

nts thing is on right now btw, just started

i should listen to these records more.

American tour in November:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/seefeel-announce-first-ever-north-american-tour-again-finally/

Nov 1 – Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room
Nov 3 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
Nov 5 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
Nov 7 – Portland, OR – Star Theatre
Nov 8 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
Nov 9 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
Nov 11 – Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall
Nov 12 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
Nov 14 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
Nov 15 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas

Some tickets already on sale, others soon to be, so hop to.

Meantime, new live single:

https://seefeelshop.bandcamp.com/album/sp-ga-19

ooh, but also i hope they haven't wrecked this.

If said single is how they're doing their live shows in general, I'm v confident in this. (Almost looking forward to next month's show more than Stereolab next week, just because I've seen the latter so many times and never the former, though I got into both pretty much at the same time in 92/93.)

Doesn't sound at all live to me, sounds like Clifford thought he might put out new remixes of Spangle and Gatha. Or if they are live, they sound mostly like triggered elements of the original recordings. I'm disappointed after the wonderful new directions of the self-titled album, to see them retread the same old same old (which was thoroughly played-out by Ch-Vox, much as I hate to say it).

Is Clifford involved again?

he’s the only constant member

for some reason i thought he was the only one NOT involved in the relaunch (which admittedly I haven't paid much attention to). good work, brain.

Terrific show tonight in LA!

Super excited to see Shigeru and Iida are still in the lineup, they brought amazing power and grind to the sound. Instagram feed showed a recording session the other day - fingers crossed it's a new album, I loved the self-title as much as Succour, my favourite of the first incarnation.

Anyone else seen this tour? Very torn on whether to make the two-hour drive next week.

what was the show like, elvis? curious what kind of material they played

Going to the NY show, looking forward to it

I haven’t listened to the S/T is awhile so I’m not sure what the exact set list was but perhaps half was Quique tracks. Ishihara is definitely the MVP-the low end dub way out in front pulling things along. I wish more bands sounded like this.

were the peel sessions availble before (other than taped off the radio at the time)? they've been released as part of the huge warp box, but are also available separately (digital only?)

https://bleep.com/release/141395-seefeel-peel-session

(reading the link that i posted, they are also on vinyl)

Figured this revive had to do with the show last night. Anyway, they were great! Seemed extremely shy but the tunes themselves were hypnotic.

I wish I went a couple of days ago but sometimes it's really cold out and you just need to sleep. How loud was it?

Pretty loud, but not piercing. Total brain massaging goodness.

i saw them at that empty bottle show! they were great, but to be honest the sound system at the bottle was not quite up to the task. not usually a big deal with a lot of shows there, but a big part of seefeel's appeal (for me at least) is the wonderful quality of the sound that they create, so hearing it (unintentionally) distorted was less than ideal. don't get me wrong, though - they ruled. :)

Only hiccup last night was something not working in the guitar rig on one song, but we wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for him shrugging at the sound guy after twisting knobs on the amp.

Chicago show was great. Definitely not too dynamic on stage but my eyes were closed half the time anyway. Massive basslines a la the Orb maybe, incredible control over endlessly permutating waves of feedback. I'd love to see the signal chain on the guitars, keys, vox. The entire show was nearly seamless. Highly recommended.

just in case anyone needs stuff that strongly resembles Polyfusia

http://rxgibbs.bandcamp.com/album/disclosure-ep

happened across him via his remixes for Dead Leaf Echo, which are strongly worth chasing down.

couldn't find any official announcements on this, but it looks like there are four reissues coming out in may on warped:

Succour (redux) - 3LP vinyl reissue of their second album including bonus disk of unreleased stuff
(ch-vox) redux - 2LP vinyl reissue of their third album including bonus disk of unreleased stuff
St/Fr/Sp - vinyl reissue of the Starethrough and Fractured/Tied EPs on one record
Rupt and Flex (1994 - 96) - 4CD box including all the above material

https://seefeel.bandcamp.com/

i'm not made of money so i'll probably get the CDs - am pretty glad they've done it that way tbh

all mastered by stefan bettke aka pole btw

Ooohhh cool!

Ha! Just came here to post that info! Ordered!

vinyl bundle from Bleep not crazy (ymmv).

Nice t shirt at Bleep too

just to correct my stupid typo because it's bugging me, these are obviously coming out on warp, not warped

the digital versions are £9 each, including rupt and flex which seems to contain all the others. what am i missing?

ha, bit of an oversight there! might be worth contacting the band about that tbh

yeah. like that time i told the local hmv that the autechre ep box shouldn't be £6.99...

i think the trick is to buy it first and then tell them afterwards!

ordered the cds. bandcamp wanted an extra £9 for 'tax and delivery', bleep wanted £3.50.

Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiii

came to about US$50 for the CD box set... a little on the high side, but I wanna hear that unreleased stuff!

Only $30 for the 4CD set on Bleep! I haven't bought a CD in years but I'm tempted to buy this one. The shirt on the Warp store is cute, there's also a Quique one on their Bandcamp page I like too, I can't decide what to get. Both are much, much better than the shirts they were selling at their show a few years ago (https://seefeel.bandcamp.com/merch/seefeel-sfl4e-graphic-t-shirt-gold-on-red)

$42 with shipping from Bleep in the US... the t-shirts ARe nice tho