We last saw Maria Somerville in a support slot with My Bloody Valentine last year and, in spite of playing to an enormodome filling up with punters getting their pre-gig beers in and adjusting their earplugs awaiting the loudest band in the galaxy, she managed to grab the attention of the audience – no mean feat – and I made a mental note to catch a headline show.
So here we are in Leeds, always a treat to visit the friendly, inclusive and convivial Brudenell. As ever, even on a rainy Monday, it’s a hive of activity. Students and locals mingle in the public bar, there is a boisterous free gig on in the front room, and in the community room support act Nashpaints is getting a more rarified and studious atmosphere going. The audience are, thank goodness, in listening mode. Nashpaints is a solo act (Finn Carraher McDonal) who has been getting rave reviews from the wonderfully verbose reviewers at Boomkat who assure us “mad hype on this one”- and while his rather understated performance with guitar and laptop isn’t exactly ‘The Who Live at Leeds’, musically it’s an intriguing mix of Panda Bear looping, Durutti Column guitar figures and MBV style melodic noise. Great album too – have a listen.
Maria Somerville is in 3 piece formation tonight with a drummer and hooded bass player – the lights are, and remain white, static and backlit so the focus is on silhouettes rather than Maria and her band. Mood set, we swing into some slow burning drones and feedback before gradually getting into ‘Garden’ from new LP ‘Luster’. My first thought is how much I like the driving bass playing from the hooded figure – it puts me in mind of The Cure ‘Disintegration’ era. The reverb drenched vocals and shoegazey guitars are all present and correct – however, what sets Maria and her band apart is they do it brilliantly and there is enough edge, personality and intriguing melodicism to reel you in. It helps that Maria has an appealing voice – perhaps informed by her interest in Irish traditional music and Folk. She can also deftly switch from some splendidly loud Loop or Spacemen 3 style fuzz pedal bliss outs, to hushed ambient vocal pieces with minimal backing that remind me of Grouper or Cocteau Twins, to just getting down and working with Fx pedals and loops and conjuring up some soundscapes.
If anything, the band are a bit of a power trio and much more amped up than on the more ambient and dreamy ‘Luster’ album and I really like the sound they make together – the live experience is different to the record but – let’s boil it down to this: Expansive, immersive, smart and tuneful – get into Maria Somerville.
My Bloody Valentine are on a short tour, their first in 7 years and if I’m not mistaken this is their first time back in Manchester since 2013. Famously MBV are not known for their productivity. To put this in perspective, since they were last in town, the musically incontinent antipodean psych-rockers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released 27 studio albums. MBV have teased new EPs, or a new album but nothing has emerged since. So why are they here?. No new music, not even a reissue (they’ve done that – a few times). Maybe something was planned to coincide with these dates (it wouldn’t be the first time). But here they are anyway and it’s a chance to give this uncanny and massively influential music an outing, and judging by the number of younger folk in the sold out venue, a chance for new fans to experience MBV live for the first time. Make no mistake they ARE a big deal – and to a new generation of Indie pop crazed youngsters, they are as significant as The Velvet Underground or The Stooges or The Ramones were to MBV. This gig sold out within minutes.
Before all that there’s a support act and a chance to scout out the vast and confusingly branded Factory International Aviva Studios Warehouse as it currently known. It’s not designed exclusively for gigs – It is a multi-functional performance space that can be fitted out for all manner of theatre and art productions. For gigs it can transform into – er – a massive 5,000 capacity room – double the size of it’s nearest rival for standing only (Manchester Academy) and effectively a giant black box with a stage at one end (disappointingly low considering how much ceiling there is – the sight lines are poor for anyone under 6 foot). Bands could do more with this space but, especially if they’re touring regular enormodomes (as MBV are) it’s not really feasible to rearrange their setup to make the best of the Warehouse. The sound is really good though, the vibe is relaxed and I’m pleased to catch most of the support set by Maria Somerville without a load of blokes chatting and buying their pre-gig beers.
Hailing from Galway, Maria is signed to 4AD and has a striking and imaginative new record ‘Luster’ to promote as well as an excellent EP of remixes including one by post-rock legends Seefeel which you should stop reading this and go and listen to right now:
I’m really taken with her short set which switches between more strident, grungey shoegazey noise, delicate ballads and feedback drenched outré-rock. Maria is touring in her own right next year and I will definitely go see a full show.
It’s fair to say MBV have always been a tricky proposition as a live band. To try and recreate their music, particularly from 1991’s peerless ‘Loveless’ onward (which makes up half the 19 song set) has always required pushing the boundaries of what technology can do – particularly at the intense volume levels that they notoriously insist on (free earplugs are available). It is a balance of sweet, delicate and vaporous melodies versus total obliterative noise, arsequake bass and thundering rhythm. Incredibly difficult to pull off and one wonders if the pathologically perfectionist Kevin Shields is ever truly satisfied with what they can achieve on stage, in the moment without endless studio tinkering. But he’s here, they’re here – let’s see it- and hear it – VERY VERY LOUD.
Part of the appeal of MBV was, like The Velvets, they always looked the part- like A Proper Band – a not a ‘lad band’ either – a band of cool boys and cool girls. On stage is the same line-up since 1988 – the one that was on the front of NME and Melody Maker and on my student digs wall – looking effortlessly hip and somewhat slightly dazed – Colm Ó Cíosóig- at the back clattering the drums as only he can, Debbie Googe stays close by Colm – locked in, driving the music on – operating heavy machinery while maintaining the scaffolding for Kevin’s wayward wall of sound. Bilinda Butcher lurks on the opposite side to Kevin, killer heels, inscrutably cool and seemingly unfazed by the sonic mayhem emitting from his corner. Shields, as ever, has a vast bank of amplifiers teetering behind him and wanders in front of it looking like the proprietor of a particularly chaotic guitar shop. Everything has to be just so. More of this later.
The opener ‘I Only Said’ suffers somewhat amid a gloopy mix while the state of the art PA and music technology tries to make sense of the amount of sonic information pouring off the stage – however, once Colm clicks the count in for ‘When You Sleep’ everything bursts into technicolour. It is loud, as per, but it’s not just noise and waves of guitars – there is a really hefty bass and kick drum. You can dance if you want to.
Unlike previous occasions I’ve seen them there is one key new element… the vocals are almost audible over the wall of guitars. Not so much that you can hear the words (you can’t really hear them on the records either) but enough that we can hear Bilinda and Kevin softly cooing to each other whereas previous performances have been almost instrumental as sound engineers wrestle with the volume balance on and off stage. You can sing along if you want to.
Even MBV can’t work miracles but when it works, it really works. The (new) light show and the vastness of the venue and the mostly excellent sound system make this immersive as it can be. ‘New You’, a perfect pop moment from their 3rd LP provides some light relief and there are even harmony vocals. ‘Thorn’ and ‘Nothing Much to Lose’ showcase the more freewheeling, scuzzier period when they were no less innovative but more ‘pedal to the metal’ and sound suitably immense – full of dynamics.
When it doesn’t work they fail admirably – ‘Who Sees You’ is an overlong and ungainly mess. ‘To Here Knows When’ – one of the most extraordinary and hallucinatory records you will ever hear is gamely chased around the stage but they fail to capture it’s elusive beauty – eventually drowning under a mudbath of atonal guitar Fx. Hats off for trying though (and by the way Kevin has a new hat perched on his long gingery locks- which makes him look a bit like either Noddy Holder or Ian Hunter).
‘Soon’ is dedicated to fallen Stone Roses bass player Mani (Kevin’s bandmate during the 00s when both joined Primal Scream – Mani nicknamed him ‘Bagpuss’) and sounds spectacular with the underpinning Balearic beat right up in the mix making things get very baggy indeed..and then half way through the power goes in Kevin’s corner. And suddenly the gig has crashed. Switch it off and on again…
We can still hear the backing track and I wonder if they’re going to riff on the Andy Weatherall mix until it grinds to a halt. A small battalion of technicians flock around the stage while Kevin, very quiet up till now, somewhat surprisingly takes it all in his stride chats to the audience and talks about the state of the world for a bit like he’s at an open mic night. They get the power back on and have another bash at ‘Soon’ and it cuts out again almost in the same place. There’s a long break while they try and get his vast rig of amps and gizmos to power up again and – as they scurry around trying to get all this…stuff…to work I find myself wondering what it is really for… is it a pose, it it a wind up? Is it just part of the t’s and c’s…the notoriously hermetic Kevin will tour but there are strings attached, and cables, and plug and pedals….a tech spec that is the stuff of nightmares for the people behind the scenes but – maybe that’s what he needs to get him on stage and ‘feeling it’ and creating all the control he needs over his frequencies I guess. Who knows.
Eventually it all crackles back to life – just in time to complete the set but there’s a sense of the spell being broken as they launch into an endlessly churning, almost feral freak-out of ‘Wonder 2’ and the traditional closer of ‘Feed Me With Your Kiss’ and ‘You Made Me Realise’ which infamously has the white/pink noise middle 8 that can go on indefinitely.. it might still be going on for all I know – reader, I had a train to catch. I hope I didn’t break anyone’s reverie as I made my exit – I was enjoying the noise bath too.
So, as ever, a mixed bag of mayhem ranging from totally thrilling to totally frustrating but never less then totally unique. It was on a far bigger scale but similar to if you’d seen them in a scuzzy Indie club or Camden pub in the late 80s. My Bloody Valentine are MY BLOODY FUCKIN’ VALENTINE and we should treasure them while they exist – especially for the younger ones in tonight who really did get the authentic experience – and who knows when some of them might form a band too…put me on the guest list if you do.
We reported from Seefeel’s spellbinding in peformance in Manchester last year (read all about it here) and since then there has been more activity, not least a stunning reissue of their early EPs collected along with the legendary Aphex Twin remixes as ‘Pure Impure’ which means their incredible back catalogue is pretty much all ‘back in print’. To celebrate, Mark Clifford has created a solo, audio-visual show for a short tour effectively doing Seefeel ‘In Dub’.
Support tonght comes from Crimewave who we saw recently in Manchester and his heavy monster beats land very well once again, channeling The Young Gods, Meat Beat Manifesto and imperial phase Hip Hop coupled with vocals and layers of guitar fx.
There’s a modest sized crowd in by the time Mark takes to the stage. It’s Sunday, its the end of Half Term and to be fair a Laptop/Mixer performance isn’t much of a spectator sport. What made Seefeel truly special is they were (are) a group that brilliantly blurred the line between purely electronic/sampled music and band performances to the point where it’s hard to pinpoint who is playing what. Without Sarah on vocals, Mark on guitar, live bass and drums it does just become – someone with a Latop and some knobs to twiddle – albeit that someone is responsible for some my favourite and most treasured music. But I’m here for it and the faithful are here for it too.
The visuals are curiously minimal too but based on a simple but clever idea – A camera pointing at the stage and repeating the absence of anything other than the edge of the Mixer table – using infinity and video feedback chaos to create patterns and interference – I can’t help thinking it would have worked better if Mark had stood centre stage and give the camera more information to deal with but it’s strangely effective and fits the musical theme. It’s one that is crying out for a more immersive venue space where you could really go to town on it.
There’s no faulting the majestic music, as Clifford pulls up recognisable themes from the early EPs and the ‘Quique’ LP, goes rogue with the FX and gets into to remixing on the fly – deconstructing the tracks as he goes, pulling focus on sounds that are familiar from the originals – snatches of vocal or eerie washes of guitar and pushing the beats and basslines into the heavy dub zone. It’s great to hear and makes me think a whole LP of Dub remixes would be very welcome or even just some soundboard recordings of these shows – just dropping that hint right there.
So as wonderful as the music was – it didn’t quite work as a performance tonight. In a smaller venue or maybe presented like one of those ‘Boiler Room’ sets where people get in amongst it and watch the artist at close quarters it would have been much more engaging – in a underoccupied gig venue on a sobering Sunday night in Leeds, not so much.
It’s a warm balmy evening and so even though it’s Monday there’s lots of people enjoying the last rays on Stevenson Square (you take your beer garden opportunities when they arise round these parts) but that hasn’t put off a decent crowd descending the steps into the grotty but welcoming Soup cellar – amid the scuzzy, graffiti strewn vibe (CBeebies GBs I call it) the aircon is on, the vibe is cool and slightly damp – and there’s some suitably summery rock action going down.
First up, from Leeds, Tulpa who I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing before. They’re a four piece and I’m immediately taken by their sound which has some bendy Kevin Shields guitar noise mixed with post-punk dynamics and, importantly, catchy and memorable melodic drive. What really gets them extra points is they do something too many young bands shy away from – they aren’t afraid to get a good head of steam going and keep it locked rather than switching to the next song. Tulpa let the instrumental sections of the songs go round a few bars to give time for some nice, grungey riffage and let the twin guitars ring for a bit – not to the point of self-indulgence or (god help us) ‘jamming’, but long enough to have impact and reel the listener in. It works and they have the audience right on side. They’ve got some great material, they’re cool, they play with quiet confidence and verve. My guess is next time I see them they’ll be headlining – they’re very good indeed.
Up next, from LA, Peel Dream Magazine. I’ve been very much enjoying their records and this is my first time seeing them live. Their music takes some cues from shoegaze, dream pop, Avant pop and the smarter, quirkier end of the American songbook (Van Dyke Parks for instance). It’s very cleverly produced, enigmatic and quietly remarkable. They have some obvious influences, they clearly have spent a great deal of time poring over the back catalogue of Stereolab (seems a reasonable way to spend your time) – but they do it in such a way that they add a whole new dimension of their own. I like it when I hear an artist reimagining music I grew up with in their own image and taking new steps those artists didn’t take. PDM have a habit of homing in on elements in music that I really like that makes me think “oh you’re hearing that the way I hear it”. PDM are so good you can imagine them being cited as an influence by future artists. That in fact, is how Pop history works kids.
I do wonder how they might translate their elegant, multi-instrumental music in a low-budget live format. With the best will in the world, I doubt it would be financially viable for PDM to bring a vibraphone player (never mind said instrument) on a short European club tour. The answer is to take the songs and reframe them for a 4 piece guitar band – and it works a treat. They do use a bit of ‘track’, just to add some keyboard backing which the drummer fires off from his pads. Much like High Llamas (who they don’t imitate but share some musical DNA) the songs are good enough that they can stand up with a basic band format. This gives a different spin on the songs compared to their records – in fact PDM positively rock out at times, particularly when leaning into their earlier, louder songs.
There’s a really good crowd in, in spite of the not entirely Pop-friendly Monday night and outdoorsy weather. PDM leader Joseph Stephens is a man of few words, and has said he doesn’t like gigs where people are talking. Fortunately tonight, in our musty cellar underneath the Northern Quarter people are getting into it, we’re all on the same page and, for both bands it’s very much a Listening Room.
California 3 piece julie (lower case – obvs) have the pop-crazed youngsters moshing with their iPhones in the air like they just don’t care
julie have made quite an impression it seems and have a sold out tour of the UK ahead of them and I just make it in time to catch the unusually early start of 8.15 (which no amount of scouring the Gorilla or SJM ‘socials’ would reveal) so I’m in a narky mood as the loud strains of opera emanate from the empty stage as the capacity crowd gear up for julie. This had better be good.
It is good. The band take to the stage to a trouser flapping bass rumble and the crowd go absolutely nuts as they crash into the first tune ‘catalogue’ (lower case).
julie have acquired that inevtiable Shoegaze or Nu-Gaze tag but fundamentally it’s not the swoonsome Slowdive or Cocteau Twins that is the obvious inspiration here. It’s the scuzzier, Squatney, cheap cider-fuelled end – we’re talking ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘You Made Me Realise’ era My Bloody Valentine – hyperactive drums, waves of distorted guitar and bass – with a big nod towards Swervedriver particularly in terms of that mix of grungey guitars with warm, widescreen melodic washes – and the dissonant wanderings of Sonic Youth. Yes!
The stage is minimally set up, no backdrop just some big amps and white light and occasional strobes. The 3 piece line up in formation – bass – guitar – drums in that order – and while they don’t say much, julie deliver a physical and visceral performance. The guitarist Keyan and singer/bass Alexandria vanish quite often either to mess with their pedals or roll around on the floor or whatever. There are long periods of tuning up and re-setting which the band wisely fill with sampled noise and a chance for their unflappable drummer Dillon to loose off some mad freeform drum fills – raising the tension before the next big riff comes in.
The crowd is definitely a younger demographic although like me there a few veterans of the first wave of 90s Shoegaze but the pop-crazed youngsters are crushing down the front to enjoy a proper mosh – albeit with phones aloft which will make for some very shaky footage. There’s a telling moment in this video of a julie performance where someone does the very 90s thing of stage-diving – albeit the diver is filming themselves as they go down which will probably make for a great Tik Tok vid …kids today eh? That said I like this quote from Keyan in the NME which really endears me to them:
“If more artists focused on art and music and playing live rather than social media, they’d be just fine”
It was a literally a blast – very, very loud performance with tons of intensity and attitude and I suspect next time julie come to Manchester it’ll be New Century or The Ritz and don’t sleep on it when the tickets go on sale. They’ve clearly got what it takes to build up an audience and create a certain weirdness and mystique around themselves around them which is very difficult to to do in the 2020s. If they have one shortcoming it’s perhaps the adherence to that My Bloody Sonic Swervedriver template but I suspect they might have a change of direction up their skinny sleeves – and indeed those confrontational between-song noise-fests are an indication of how ready julie are to challenge and face-off their audience – suffice to say the kids seem ready to take whatever julie can throw at ’em.
Back in my favourite basement which, once again has been transformed into a sonic cathedral by some adventurous artists
First up, a nice surprise. Simon Scott, who by day is the drummer with Slowdive – now well into their remarkably successful 2nd act – but is also well established as an artist in his own right with a dizzying array of musical projects and soundtracks to his name. Tonight he performs as Three Quarter Skies who have a new record ‘Fade In’ to play to us. Shoegazers will be in familiar sonic territory however this is a much looser and more lo-fi proposition than Slowdive – Simon fronts a 3 piece band singing and playing guitar and electronics and he’s joined by a simpatico guitarist and drummer who whip up great billowing clouds of noise that reminds of those more exploratory groups in this field like The Telescopes, Spacemen 3 and also the fragile songwriting of the mythical Flying Saucer Attack. It’s loud, enveloping and rather marvellous.
This is my 2nd time seeing Dummy, who headlined a ‘Mood Swings’ band night in this very venue a couple of years ago and I was very much taken with them and the many musical boxes they ticked with me. They’re back over from LA and getting toward the end of a pretty extensive few weeks schlepping around Europe and beyond. It’s fair to say they look completely knackered – but this doesn’t stop them putting in a brilliantly powerful and idiosyncratic performance – and like the Portishead album they borrowed their band name off – it’s hard to predict the musical ebb and flow they take us on.
Everyone has keyboards as well as guitars and drums so one minute we get Brian Eno style, ambient interludes and the next minute we’re into My Bloody Valentine guitar bending freakouts, the electro-glide of Curve or the metronomic locked grooves of early Stereolab, Broadcast or Yo La Tengo. On songs like ‘Unshaped Road’ they show that 90s Trip Hop influence as a sweet pop vocal rides over a killer bass riff that could be from Massive Attack. That’s not to say they are derivative or slavishly copying those artists – they have a unique style of their own and they knit a lot of different moods and sounds together and somehow make it all coherent – their track Blue Dada is a good example – it starts very much in that early 90s Too Pure era Stereolab Groop Groove but takes on a strange little life of it’s own and its that sense of surprise in the choice of melody and dynamics that sets Dummy apart.
https://youtu.be/_w8942xcHY4?si=ZQbvcSmusYLmyS9T
Tonight suggests that Dummy, as good as their records are, are a band that really need to be seen live to really get what they’re about – so if this hard working band come to your town don’t pass up the chance to see them bring the noise.
Following a triumphant headline set at Manchester Psychfest earlier this year, those little Horrors are back with what promoters like to call an ‘Underplay’ tour –
i.e. a run of intimate shows at smaller venues. Not to suggest that their appeal has become more selective (the tour sold out in no time), rather after a few years of minimal Rock Action for The Horrors this is to give them a chance to get up close and personal with an audience again and road test a few new songs ready for next year which promises a new LP ‘Night Life’, festival appearances and presumably some bigger stages.
The Horrors are also using this opportunity to showcase some new bands they want us to hear- different supports each night of the tour and we get a good one in the shape of MYNK – a London post-punk power trio who currently have just one digital EP to their name so far- produced by Horrors frontperson Faris Badwan no less – entitled ‘Pleaser’ and very good it is too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR2qDsltSMU
MYNK play as the venue slowly fills up and I find myself drawn into their world rather than lingering at the back – singer Bex drives the songs along with thundering bass and interacts with guitarist Lewis who plays the kinds of guitar I like – spectral not-quite riffs that hang somewhere in mid air. Just when you think this is yr standard Banshees/Wire/PiL style post-punk business – they swerve this way and that (both physically and sonically) and wrong-foot you – in a pleasingly disconcerting way. I’m into it, the gathering audience are too and I’ll definitely watch out for more MYNK – and so should you.
So, The Horrors. I go back with these guys – not as far as their Screaming Lord Goth debut ‘Strange House’ (which lest we forget, got rave reviews at the time) but certainly to their curveball 2nd LP ‘Primary Colours’ which I saw debuted at a raucous show in Manchester back in 2009 (the long, lost Ruby Lounge). This saw them find a sweet-spot between their B-movie horror shtick, My Bloody Valentine churning guitars and metronomic Kosmiche Musik and since then it’s been fun to follow them down a few unlikely paths – early Simple Minds-esque Big Music on ‘Skying’, the Numanoid/Depeche black-clad disco of ‘V’ and most recently a somewhat controversial step into Cyborg-metal with the ‘Lout’ EP – but always in the same skinny jeans and pasty complexions – the essential heart of the Horrors has always been there. Their only misstep, perhaps the somewhat directionless ‘Luminous’ LP notable by its absence from tonight’s set – although it has a few fan favourites on it too.
The other thing about the Horrors is they never seemed to play quite as often as I’d have liked – and like The Fall or New Order (before they turned Pro) they could be a bit erratic – indeed at Leeds in 2022 for a one-off show – the band seemed to struggle to fill the gaps left by former Keyboard player Tom Furse and a poor sound mix rendering Faris inaudible – which made for a frustrating and dispiriting experience for both band and audience. “Goodbye Forever” was the parting shot.
So it is a relief when they lurch onto the stage with the jabbing electronic stabs of ‘Whiplash’ (from the Lout EP) and we get a clearly audible Faris and the band in all their Horror.
Faris, still like a Gerald Scarfe cartoon of a rock star, lurches forward from his mic stand staring the audience out and leading the merry dance – the somewhat demonic Rhys Webb has decided to paint his face with panstick which drips down his face as the gig goes on to add a nice bit of Sensational Alex Harvey showmanship to the occasion. Josh the guitarist hangs in the shadows sending those signature churning washes of guitar up into the stratosphere and they crash into ‘Three Decades’, the first of 5 tracks from ‘Primary Colours’ – and we can relax cos there’s a band up on stage who look like they were born to do this – this is clearly going to be fucking ace. And it is.
There is a new drummer (not sure what happened to ‘Coffin’ Joe Spurgeon) but Jordan Cook does a sterling job and Amelia Kidd (who we can’t see hidden behind the speaker stack from where we’re stood) is getting busy with synths and backing vocals that are so crucial to the Horrors sound – she brings what was missing from that Leeds gig and injects some feminine cool into proceedings. If anything, she could do with her being louder in the mix – there is a point during ‘Sea Within A Sea’ where she gets the keyboard riff going and the phones go up and the energy level soars – more Keyboards please!
We get 3 new songs from the forthcoming ‘Night Life’ the first of which is ‘Trial By Fire’ – it’s classic Horrors but with brutal bursts of violent distortion and Faris (who is of Palestinian heritage if you didn’t know), leaves us in no doubt about what might be driving some of this newfound fury.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV69ePJv8Yo
It sets the scene for a new LP which, based on what has been played and released so far seems to tie up the clues left from ‘Strange House’ up to ‘Lout’ and maybe they’ve arrived at a sound which is truly theirs .
For a band accused of ‘Record Collection Rock’ (see also Primal Scream) tonight everything hangs together and you start to see a band with a strong identity that are built to last – with the set ending with their most poptastic moment, the weirdly bleak dance anthem ‘Something to Remember Me By’ but even that fits seamlessly.
As always there are shouts at the encore for ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’ and cuts from ‘Strange House’ and – who knows maybe a veteran Horrors will revisit those one day but for now we’re looking at band who have tunes to burn (and they don’t play all of them) a very promising new record and, still only in their 30s, maybe they’re only just getting started….
I first saw Seefeel 30 odd years ago supporting Cocteau Twins and was immediately grabbed by the fact that while they presented as a traditional 4 piece guitar band, they didn’t sound like a ‘beat combo’ at all – swirling, looped sounds, distant vocals mangled so the line between voice and synthesised sound becomes blurred, and great thwacking bass (memorably played by Darren Seymour – twirling it around his head like it was a majorettes baton). Truly in a class of their own and I’ve been an avid fan ever since.
The band have returned, sporadically over the years, and got some critical reappraisal recently with the material they recorded for Warp records being reissued as an excellent box set complete with a wodge of unreleased gems that – unlike a lot of ‘extra tracks’ are well worth your attention. Seemingly out of nowhere, a new mini-LP ‘dropped’ earlier this year on Warp. ‘Everything Squared’ is delicious and bridges the gap between the billowing clouds of looped guitar and sub-bass of their earlier stuff and the spartan, icy plains of their mid-period work.
A gig by these is a rare thing indeed and with no danger of a moshpit I get down the front for the full arsequake bass experience and perhaps to try and figure out how Seefeel works. They’re down to a 3 piece tonight with core members Sarah Peacock and Mark Clifford joined by a bass player (I didn’t catch his name and this reviewer thought it was a returning Seymour?) and while the bass stays firmly below head height you could lie down and take a nap on the colossal subsonic waves coming off the stage.
The set opens with ‘Climatic Phase’ from their debut ‘Quique’ and it is one of those goose-bump moments as they gradually build the track up from looping samples, fragments of vocal and guitar building toward the dub bass and everything locks in. They still sound like nobody else. The set mixes those early Too Pure tracks with a selection from the new record and you can’t see the join. It’s a privilege to watch them at work, up close – and it’s not as if we’re seeing behind the curtain as I’m none the wiser how they make a few FX pedals, some guitars, a laptop and some singing sound so other-worldly.
It’s a relatively short set but warmly received by a very attentive audience of old heads and few curious pop-crazed youngsters who hopefully leave inspired like I was 30 years hence. Leave ’em wanting more I guess, and we do. Their is talk of a new full length LP and apparently Mark Clifford only puts out a fraction of the material he records so hopefully I will have my atoms rearranged by Seefeel again before too long. Majestic.
