---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 14:58:53 -0600
From: Kent Williams <cadsi.com!kent@elvis.cadsi.com>
To: "Alan M. Parry" <fluid@hyperreal.com>
Subject: REVIEW: Seefeel 'Succour'
Did you ever hear 'first hearings' on Public Radio? A couple
of fussbudget classical music critics would listen to records
without knowing who it is and pass judgement on it in real time.
This is another in my series of real time reviews ... The track
notes are made as I hear the songs, and the verbiage at the top
is what my overall impressions are.
Again, a gentle suggestion to other reviewers -- the more specific
you can be about what something sounds like, the more useful it
is as a consumer service. You can be impressionistic, but remember
the record is the 'ding an sich' in question, and its tempting to
float off into the never-never land of typing faster than you
think.
On with the REVIEW:
Seefeel Succour (Warp WAPCD28)
This disk sounds like it was recorded underwater. Only previously
released track is 'Fracture.' The cover art is another in the
fracture/tied vein -- solid brown with silver lettering.
No one else around is doing what Seefeel does on this record. They
combine sequenced drum tracks with sampled and warped guitars, and
then layer in atmospheric guitar sounds played live. Delays and
echoes make ghosts of notes passed part of the arrangement, with
a lot left to chance juxtapositions of sound.
They must throw away a lot to end up with what's left here. Of
course anything that didn't work is just compost for the sampler.
What they DO NOT do is use any conventional synths (analog or digital)
that I can detect, unless it is to make drum sounds. This contributes
to an idiosyncratic unique feel that I'm not hearing from anyone else.
No D50 pads for these blokes! Quite refreshing.
Obligitory Rolling Stone/NME Pompous Pronouncement: More than anyone
else, Seefeel has successfully re-invented the guitar band. I feel
lucky to live in a world where they've had the time and money
to fuck around and come up with this stuff.
Obligitory Whine: This little sucker set me back $22, and I get
a discount! Get that dollar back to a respectable exchange rate
or there'll be hell to pay!
I'm dying to see them play live. It's got to be a real treat.
Even if they have a sequencer going, their style allows for
some open-ended explorations with live instruments.
Meol -- Floating sustained tones, super processed guitar sounds.
Slo-mo harmonic developing. One for the real ambient fans ...
Extract -- Dubby take with bendy sample loop ...
When Face Was Face -- Aphex stop start beat with some
beating-on-metal-railing ostinato. Rolling vocal loops on a loop
that's defined by a suspended-fourth ...
Fracture -- on the Aphex tip. If you don't like maddly panning
distorto drums, let this one go. Besides the distorto drums, there
is what sounds like a guitar played in an echoey hall with a volume
pedal, and a little bit of skittery singing. In an earlier review
I said it sounded like an SAW II track mixed with 'quoth', but now
that I've heard analog bubblebath III, I'd say it sounds like that,
with a little more room ambience ...
Gatha -- loping distorto beats with guitars played with drumsticks.
[Try this some time -- take a drum stick and rub it lightly on
strings over the pickup while you finger chords.]
Ruby-Ha -- One of their patented layered loop numbers. Again
with strange drumming ...
Rupt -- ominous bassoony loop, dubby drums, echoey voices. Dark
minor mode feel.
Vex -- This is a sharp stick in the ear but how else you going
to work out the wax? The opening loop is a very digital sounding
machine gun riff, that kicks into an almost disco rhythm.
In the background there's some echoey guitars. This one could
work on the dance floor, and that's a complement.
Cut -- the slow dub comes back with a subtly modulated pitched drum
sound. The bass line sounds like electric guitar, but with the attack
smoothed off. The vocals are down in the mix, but they actually let
her sing here, instead of chopping her into little samples. Lovely.
Utreat -- Academy award for best use of harmonics on an electric
bass. The drum sound is like someone aimlessly hitting a table
with a wooden spoon. It winds down to some beatless drones.
--
kent.williams@cadsi.com -- All views expressed are.
"The problem with evolution is that humans with undesirable traits reproduce
before said traits catch up with them. That's why we still have people
who ride motorcycles without helmets, Cybersell Inc. and Newt Gingrich."