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).

Scala >> Holding and hoarding

In an effort to ramp up the excitement level, I've decided to maybe start adding text flourishes around each song name.  So you will find that even more lasers of pure adrenaline are gushing out of your arteries while reading this blog than before.  Note: Use these new, larger lasers wisely.

––///// Scala - "Hold Me Down"

(Touch, 1995) \\\\\––

Scala evolved out of the British electro-dreampoppers Seefeel.  Not to brag, but I created the Wikipedia page for Seefeel's influential debut album Quique years ago, so go check that album out before listening to anything by Scala.  In the course of only 4 minutes, this song mutates and devolves into some surreal and unsettling soundscapes, with every possible studio/production trick used, though in very subtle ways, with only a muffled, slowed-down drumbeat leading the way through the darkness.  Students majoring in record producing/engineering should literally be assigned this song so they can try to dissect all the little things that are going on.  15 years later, the album still sounds way more futuristic and innovative than almost anything else that has ever been released in this genre.  The song "Naked" on this album (Beauty Nowhere) could've been a real hit single; "Ride Me" is more in the spooky vein of "Hold Me Down".  This album's song titles are not bashful, and Sarah Peacock's voice is one of the deadliest baby-makin' devices in music history, in my opinion.  Bizarrely, after the band Scala came to an end, she worked at a super-hip London music club called... Scala.  I see what she did there.  The CD booklet's graphic design, done by Touch founder Jon Wozencroft (w/ "film output by Orange Communications, Ltd.," plus photos by people named Alexei Tylevich, Phillip Thoeni, and Juergen Teller), is a stunning smörgåsbord that goes perfectly with the music, yet stands alone just fine too.

You really have to listen to this while driving around at night in an unfamiliar part of town, which is how I first heard it, in late '08, while trying to find a music club called Chelsea's Cafe in Baton Rouge to see A Place To Bury Strangers & Sian Alice Group.  It was one of the freakiest listening experiences of my life, and the concert was boocoo (a little NOLA Yat slang there) great too.

This one goes out to Alicia Acacia (Merry Deth).

Sarah Peacock, jus' chillin' with her life-sized action figure alter-ego before going to hold down some thieves until the cops arrive

She looks very similar to Richard D. James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin; and they're both redheaded '90s electronic music innovators from England.  Coincidence?

Speaking of relations, I don't know if Sarah Peacock is related to Alice Peacock, who was the singer on UNKLE's amazing downtempo classic "Bloodstain".  Maybe everyone is related in England.

Planets with similar climates - Björk - "Bath" (2005), Magic Dirt - "Fear" (1996), Ciccone Youth - "G-Force" (1988), Replikants - "Patty's Trip" (1996), Curve - "Rising (Headspace Mix [by Future Sound Of London])" (1993), Zoviet*France - "Look Into Me" (1990), 5ive Style - "I Told Ya" (1995), Autechre - "Basscadet (Seefeelmx [by Seefeel])" (1994), Low - "I Remember" (7" version) (1998).

Here is a clip from this barbecue at my parents' house a few weekends ago of a youth holding down a balloon.  My legs can be seen near the beginning with the blue shorts on.  I don't even know if this kid knows who Justin Bieber is, or what his music sounds like, or what music is, but it was pretty entertaining.  By about the 2-hour mark, it became somewhat less entertaining.