Seefeel

𝘼 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙝-𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙯𝙚, 𝙙𝙪𝙗 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝘿𝙈, 𝙎𝙚𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡'𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘 '𝟵𝟯 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙗𝙗𝙚𝙮 𝙍𝙤𝙖𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧.

'Quique' is one of those albums that makes more sense now than it did when it was released. It arrived as the cultural tides were shifting; we weren't in full data dump crossover territory yet, but the idea that someone might enjoy The Orb and Aphex Twin as much as they did Cocteau Twins and MBV wasn't completely out of the question - peep Autechre's regular playlisting of Cocteau Twins and The The on their disengage show at around that same time for proof.

Mark Clifford, alongside Sarah Peacock, Justin Feltcher and Darren Seymour, proposed a utopian starting point here that's been fleshed out and elaborated on ever since, not just by Clifford and Peacock as they've steered Seefeel into new territory, but by shoegaze revivalists like Ulrich Schnauss, laptop-powered axe liquifiers Fennesz and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, and more recently the hypnagogic Melbourne wave: YL Hooi, CS + Kreme and Jonnine Standish.

Now the album's far less threatening to the status quo, but at the time Seefeel were part of a small handful of "proper bands" who were steadily freeing themselves from the limitations imposed on them by orthodox expectations. In the space of a few years, we were blessed with cataclysmic hybrid material from Bark Psychosis, Main, Flying Saucer Attack and Laika, and it was Seefeel who came closest to capturing the era's smokey back-room euphoria. Not exactly post-rock as it was labelled at the time, 'Quique' feels more like post-rave, tapping into the energy that drove Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' innovations, finding the symmetry between 4AD's early catalog and AFX's spiraling comedown abstractions.

There's barely any traditional songwriting on 'Industrious': rickety drum loops scrape over shimmering guitars and a house-y two note bassline, while Peacock's wordless coos drape a layer of silk over the top end. They ditch the rhythm section entirely on 'Imperial', sampling their instruments and shivering repeating textures to mimic the density of Kevin Shields' guitar work while following the motorik pulse of techno. They'd strip away even more by the time they released their genius second album 'Succour' on Warp in '95, but 'Quique' is where it all started - a milestone record.