Seefeel >> I can see you feel climactic

Seefeel - "Come Alive"

(Too Pure Records, 1993 / Astralwerks Records, 1994)

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Seefeel - "Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)"

(Volume, 1993 / Too Pure Records, 2007)

London-based Seefeel evolved into Scala in the mid-'90s; if you missed my Scala post from a few months ago (the song "Hold Me Down"), then you really have no one to blame but yourself.  Go check it out.

I was planning for months to post the dubby, hypnotic title track from the More Like Space EP, and in fact that song is one of the reasons I began this blog.  But I decided this song from the same EP is more immediate and just as compelling.  The dense, claustrophobic production style of this song somehow reminds me of the style used by The Bomb Squad, e.g. on Public Enemy's "Brothers Gonna Work It Out."  The punishing bassline and industrial-style drumbeats (I'm not sure if those are real or fake drums) take this song into uncharted waters, genre-wise.  It turns out that a wall of multi-tracked flutes can sound pretty eerie.  At about the 2:45 mark, the beat settles into a nice simulated lock-groove thing for about a minute, lulling you into a bit of a trance.  Then at about the 3:45 mark, the drums sort of run off of their tracks and go all free-jazz for a while, and then the last minute is all ambient and liquid-y.  I wish the spoken-style vocals were louder in the mix, so I could hear what singer Sarah Peacock is saying.  I'm quite sure that she says "I can see you" at the 1:51 mark.  I believe this exact mp3 was taken from the 1994 compilation of Seefeel's early tracks, called Polyfusia, which was designed to introduce the band to U.S. listeners concurrent with the belated stateside release of their debut album Quique.

"Come Alive"

An awesomely spacey, disorienting instrumental remix of this song called "Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)" appeared on the 2007 "Redux Edition" reissue of Quique.

"Come Alive (Climactic Phase #1)"

This song was originally released in 1993 on a compilation called Volume Seven.  It was that bimonthly(?) compilation series that came with a nearly 200-page glossy CD-sixed book and always had a bizarrely charismatic species of fish on the cover.  It's hard to explain what the Volume series was, but this page has info & pics about installment #7.  (Note that Sub Sub had not yet turned into Doves, The Verve still lacked a "The," and Radiohead had yet to transform from a mediocre rock band into a mediocre techno-rock band.)

I first heard Seefeel via a track called "Charlotte's Mouth (Avant Garde Mix)" in 1999, and then I took a chance on buying Quique on cassette for a dollar the following year.  It became a roadtrip favorite in my Acura Integra (R.I.P.).  Seefeel reformed with only two original members a few years ago and put out a mediocre album, but at least it helped to stir up a lot of attention for the band's earlier works, which are finally reaching classic status.

That's a time-lapse photo of a moonset in Rio, taken in April 2011 by Babak Tafreshi; click on the photo for lots of info on it.  He's the founder of The World At Night, which describes itself as "a program to produce and present a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks against the celestial attractions."  I found it at NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day site.

Planets with similar climates: Curve - "Blindfold" & "Galaxy" (1991), Slowdive - "Missing You" (1993), Bailter Space - "Get Lost" (1992), Scala - "Naked" (1995), My Bloody Valentine - "Soon" (1990), Bleach - "Fragment (1992).

Flying Saucer Attack >> And I hardly feel surprised as I look up in the sky

Flying Saucer Attack - "Up In Her Eyes"

(Drag City Records / Domino Records, 1997)

Well, as you may notice, I've decided to stop doing the little embellishments to each song title, but it was exciting while it lasted.  Flying Saucer Attack, named after a terrible late '70s New Wave hit by the Rezillos, was masterminded by a guy named Dave Pearce.  In a current music scene populated with band names like How To Dress Well, Pissed Jeans, I'm From Barcelona, LMFAO, and Pygmy Lush, it's good to know that there used to be bands with names like Flying Saucer Attack, one of the few truly tattoo-worthy band names ever.  Based in the rugged multicultural seaport city of Bristol, famous as the birthplace of trip-hop, Pearce had initial help from Rachel Brook, who was later in ambient slow-poppers Movietone.  FSA released a huge slew of music in the early to mid '90s, but only performed live about a dozen times, probably due to the logistics of recreating all the strange tape loops & noises from the studio recordings.  The maelstrom of ambient feedback and noise seems to be on the verge of overwhelming this song's delicate melody, but the melody stays strong and wins out.  In addition to Pearce's beautifully enunciated vocals, the throbbing bassline is what really puts this song over the top and into an unclassifiable genre.  The weird thing is that, having been reared on Sonic Youth, I didn't even notice all the noise in this song at first, but several years later I realized "Whoa, dude, that's a lot of noise."

All Music Guide said:

"While the more experimental parts of New Lands aren't really Pearce completely trashing his general aesthetic and trying something new, they do show him attempting and often succeeding at introducing further variety to his murky, intriguing field.  Thus, 'Up in Her Eyes' has a very familiar vocal and guitar style, but the obsessive, upfront yet still shadowy percussion -- sounding more like a chugging train engine than anything else -- dominates the track, at least up until its slightly more ambient, free-flowing end... Through it all, the combination of Pearce's tender, dark folk vocals and skybursting guitar provides the central point of the experience, making for some fascinating, entrancing results."

I borrowed this CD, New Lands, from friend Andrew Mister in '99, around the same time I bought FSA's self-titled '93 debut album.  About ten years later I found out that "Up In Her Eyes" was originally released as a free 7" flexidisc in issue 6 of Stop Smiling magazine in 1995.  The album version is a re-recorded one, since its liner notes say "album recorded late 96 / early 97."  I got a huge-ass fold-out glossy promo poster for New Lands on eBay in 2005, surely the biggest promo poster I've ever obtained, and I have hundreds of promo music posters and concert flyers up several art portfolio folders in several closets in multiple area codes.  The cover art of this album is particularly unsettling, yet Zen-inducing.  A page from the CD booklet:

Drag City Records' fall '97 press release:


the long-awaited follow-up to further has been a long time coming -- over two years, to be honest. since that acoustically-tinged offering, the sound of fsa has revolved into metallic pastures...
this new fsa sound steers through the past pop music into the direction of rhythmic loopery. bass anchors the familiar guitar fuzz, edgelessly felt through the wall of sound and giving it a beat where one was only imagined before.
previously only hinted at, this pulse booms forth in a bigger way, although still obscured by clouds.
phase two. the beat is the new thing. previously only hinted at, this pulse booms.


A photo I took of my Philodendron, var. 'Burle Marx,' leaning towards the sunrise on Tuesday at about 7 AM:

This plant variety was named after this guy

Planets with similar climates: Colfax Abbey - "Feel" (1996), My Bloody Valentine - "Several Girls Galore" (1988), Unwound - "Lady Elect" (1996), Plexi - "Dayglo" (1996).


The best old Onion article I've found recently: I'll Thank You Not To Call My Collection Of Sequential-Art Erotica 'Dirty Comics'