Seefeel, ICA, London, 16/09/2010

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Posted on Sep 20th 2010 11:05 pm

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Seefeel, ICA, London, 16/09/2010

Despite having only released one album and a couple of singles for the label, Seefeel are one of Warp’s most emblematic acts. Over a year ago, the band was resurrected, the time, it seemed, of a celebratory set as part of the opening event for Warp’s twentieth anniversary bash in Paris. That was without counting on the persuasive powers of Warp co-founder and head, Steve Beckett, who got on the band’s case and convinced them to work together again and finally give a follow up to the stunning and seminal Quique, Succour and (Ch-Vox), the band’s three albums to date.

The reunion actually dates back to 2007, when Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock found themselves answering questions about the freshly expanded Quique, reissued by Too Pure. While Seefeel never actually split up, the consensus was that they wouldn’t record until they had something fresh to offer. Side projects and other commitments eventually got in the way, but this fortunate reunion may finally be delivering, with a new EP, Faults, their first release in fourteen years, just out, and rumours of an album to follow. Coinciding with the EP, the band announced two rare live dates, one in Brighton, and another at the ICA in London.

Twenty years after they first got together, can Seefeel still deliver? Faults is most certainly a fine come back offering, and the level of noise and heavy distortion dispensed right from the offset showed that, as a band, Seefeel are as relevant today as they were first time round. After an impressive wall of noise, Time To Find Me, offered early on, appeared to have shed the smooth outer skin of its recorded version and was presented distorted and muffled, with Peacock’s voice buried into layers of dark noise.

Interestingly, it is the two recent additions to the line up, DJ Scotch Egg on bass and former Boredoms drummer IIda ‘E-Da’ Kazuhisa, who showed the most enthusiasm. DJ Scoth Egg especially spent the evening adopting a wide array of stances which, in all of their corny ways, added, or underlined, the many shifts in moods of the evening. Both Mark Clifford’s and Sarah Peacock, stone cold British to the core, remained for the most part introspective throughout. The quartet’s reading of old classics, the major part sourced from Succour-era, was however pretty spotless, faithful to the originals, enough to be identifiable, yet smeared in dirt and grease, and so angular that they appeared fresh. Tracks such as Gartha, When Face Was Face or Fracture were brought to life by hefty injections of distortions, live sound processing and razor-sharp drumming, and unleashed onto a visibly approving crowd. The latter, with it’s interlocking section of pre-recorded and live drums layered over ambient guitar textures, being especially tribal and raw.

By contrast, the rendering on new song Faults was pretty tamed, reflecting the mood of the studio version, but bass and guitar distortions were showing aggressive streaks below the calm and polished surface. Even more so than with its studio counterpart/incarnation, this had everything of a grower, and it grew and grew, somehow remaining under tight control, yet growling and showing teeth. Folds, which followed, was much hazier and more grinding, and the loudest song Seefeel played all evening.

Seefeel have always proudly occupied some kind of no-man’s land between shoegaze and electronic experimentation, and this evening’s performance clearly reasserted their position. While laptop and electronic wizardry were used extensively throughout the set, at times pretty obviously, at others more discreetly, the band’s sound comes to life with a hefty dose of live interaction, and the frontier between live, processed live and prerecorded is often blurred, giving the overall performance a unique aura.

Seefeel (MySpace) | Warp Records

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