Seefeel 'Starethrough' EP
WAP 45CD (Warp)
'seefeel' has always interested me because they came more out of the 'rock'
world and merged guitar-based stuff with the ambient-trippy-tape loop thing.
From that standpoint, 'Starethrough' is a departure, in that there are no
recognizable guitar sounds. They seem to have dived head first into the
same vat that Aphex Twin sups at.
So how is the result? It grows on me, as their stuff will. They love
the overlapping repetition of samples; which can be trance-inducing. Or it can
be annoying, depending on your mood.
'Starethrough' should be subtitled 'ode to a synthetic kick drum'. It has
a sort of dub bassline, the aforementioned kick drum, and chiming, worldless
loopy vocals. Pretty.
'Air-eyes' is way-aphex, way-eno. The bass line is eno, the echo-y wash
of perhaps-guitars is aphex. There's some rhythm instruments layered on
top.
'Spangle' has that damn kick drum going at it again, and chiming loops of
almost casiotone organ chords. The real joy of the piece is what sounds
to be either a saxaphone or processed voice, which brings some warmth to
a pretty icy repetetive groove.
'Lux1' is murky, inchoate rumblings. Like floating around in a deep ocean
trench.
So while I enjoy this, I'm not sure it's what it will take to win over all
the nay-sayers. It is something of a departure, further into IDM territory
than their previous work, but it will remain to be seen whether they're just
tourists, or here to set up a franchise.