From:owner-idm@hyperreal.com
Subject: REVIEW: Seefeel "Fracture Tied"
Seefeel -- Fractured Tied Warp WAP53CD
Fracture: 5:55
Tied: 6:35
Way back when (say, 1993) the story on Seefeel was that Too Pure signed them,
but refused to release recordings by them until they came up with something
less derivative of My Bloody Valentine. This they did, to good effect.
Apocryphal or not, this story is illuminating in the current state of affairs.
Fracture/Tied is, to my ears very derivative of Aphex Twin.
'Fracture' features a distorted drum track, ala 'Quoth' backed by echoey, slow
guitar or synth lines. The female vocals, when they kick in, sound like the
echoed samples on SAW II. In fact, I'd guess that you could reconstruct this
track with a copy of SAW II and Surfing on Sine Waves.
Not that it's a bad track. I actually quite like it. I'm just concerned that
a band that a year ago was turning out music that seemed distinctive and
original seems to have become exclusively a Richard D James fan club.
'Tied' has a kind of "music-minus-1" feel. That bloody kick drum sound that
was so prominent on the 'Starethrough' EP is back, featured in a kind of 100
BPM hip hop pattern that repeats without variation for 6 minutes. Behind that,
there's a very quiet assortment of muffled noises, the most prominent of which
is what sounds like someone fiddling with the knobs of a guitar amplifier with
nothing plugged in. That's it. If there's a point to this I'd like to hear
about it. Personally, I'd have preferred they'd recorded an all acoustic
sing-along of 'Jimmy Crack Corn' for a B side.
I will give this a few more spins to see if something wonderful pops out at
me, but my hopes are not high. I hope they're saving something a little more
engaging for their next full length.
--
Kent Williams -- kent@gilligan.cadsi.com
Look in the mail header for all sorts of vital information about me.
Leona, I want to CONFESS things to you..
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I want to EMPTY your ASHTRAYS...