In 2021, Seefeel’s back catalogue was subjected to sizeable reissues. Their Warp long and extended players were repressed, and repackaged with a ton of bonus, previously unreleased material. The astute probably guessed that something was afoot, and now after a 13-year hiatus, the band are set to release some brand new music. The mini-album, titled Everything Squared, contains 6-tracks, produced by founding members Sarah Peacock and Mark Clifford. Shigeru Ishihara, who originally worked with the group in 2010 / 11, helps out on bass.

Seelfeel, initially a 4-piece, famously bridged the gap between indie My Bloody Valentine-influenced guitar-based gear and the pioneering electronica of Autechre and Aphex Twin. They were one of the acts championed by celebrated journalist Simon Reynolds, when, in 1994, he coined the term “post-rock”. Their still brilliant 1993 debut, Quique, fed everything through delay and harmoniser pedals, and featured dynamite dub bass-lines, provided by Daren Seymour, and inspired by The Orb, Jah Wobble, and drummer Justin Fletcher’s reggae record collection. As the group progressed, determined to evolve,  “work outside the norm” and “not revisit the same ideas”, their sound became increasingly processed. Less live. More machined. Locked deeper and deeper in infinite intertwining computer-generated loops. This hypnotic and often soothing repetition continues to define their new work. The treatment of Peacock’s voice like another instrument, used to create alien otherworldly textures, also remains central, key. She’s ethereal and angelic, like a high, helium-pitched cherub on the rumbling Sky Hooks, while, on the seriously subbed Multifolds, her sighs are sliced into microscopic snippets and dovetailed with sequences nipped and tucked to sound like tiny techno trumpets. The manipulations on End Of Here are muted, more choir-like.

Busy electronic environments that somehow stay chilled, all of the tracks feel like they’ve been captured in slow motion. Antiskeptic rides a rhythm of busted, distorted slaps. Loose The Minus marries fuzz guitar arcs with huge low end undulations. Hooked Paw is sort of tribal. A spooky, haunted robotic ritual. The sweet melodies that emerge, summoned, from within these densely layered designs, in an uncharacteristic nod to the past, reference, echo, the early ambient efforts of the aforementioned heroes of “IDM” – Richard D. James, Rob Brown, and Sean Booth.

Photograph by Jonathan Wood. 

Seefeel’s Everything Squared can be ordered directly from Warp. 

Live dates:

Aug 28 – Cafe OTO, London (SOLD OUT)

Sep 20 – Strange Brew, Bristol

Sep 21 – Soup, Manchester