I have to admit that at the time of its release, I didn’t pay any attention to Quique. I’d become a bit of a techno purist, and thought that Seefeel were “just” an indie band. Plus I didn’t buy albums, only 12”s to DJ with. I did own, and love, the Aphex Twin remixes of Time To Find Me. Something I’d been passed from behind the counter at FatCat Records – when the institution was Europe’s leading Electronica store, based in London’s Covent Garden, before it became a boundary pushing label. I had only the vaguest idea of who Seefeel were. I’d seen their name in the NME. I hadn’t seen Simon Reynolds’ “post-rock” pieces. I didn’t start reading The Wire until years later. I bought the record solely for the Aphex mixes, obviously. 

Those remixes are perhaps the most restrained things that Richard D. James has ever done. He was such a fan of the original, and a good friend of the band, that he decided to leave it largely alone, but he did add, in his own words, a “groove” to it. Setting Peacock’s ethereal mantra, her repeating of the track title, to a sorta slapped funky fusion B-line and a tumbling broken break. Delivering something druggy, stoned, and sexy. There’s a Fast and a Slow mix. The latter rolls like James span it at not 45 but 33. Stretching it out, making it even more sensual. Like go-go, but glutinous, gelatinous, dipped, dunked, drowned in treacle. The group’s own remix of Plainsong on the flip of the 12 sounds like the dubby Euro techno that Andrew Weatherall used to drop at Sabresonic. 

In 2021, as a reviewer, I received the Rupt + Flex 94 — 96 box set. I was aware by now that Seefeel were highly revered, but again to be honest, there was so much music there I didn’t know where to start. Then toward the end of 2023, on a whim, I bought a “UK post-rock” compilation, called In The Light Of Time, put together by Jorge Cortes Castro (of Madrid’s Lovemonk Records), with sleeve notes from the journalist Jeanette Leech. The album contained the Seefeel’s Through You. Intrigued, intoxicated and listening on repeat, I spent a small fortune on a second hand copy of the Medical Records Quique reissue, and also tracked down Leech’s comprehensive post-rock history, Fearless. 

My plan for 2024 was to significantly reduce the time I spent on new music reviews, and instead research and write sprawling essays on “post-rock” – the music that both the book and compilation introduced me to – and its interface  / overlap with shoegaze, dub, ambient and (the mellower end of) progressive house. Typically, none of this panned out. 

The first piece was due to be about The Beach Boys’ Feel Flows – a song sometimes cited as a proto-shoegaze landmark – and then Seefeel released a new mini-LP, Everything Squared, so I made a ton of notes on Quique. I also put Rupt + Flex back on the stereo, and this time was blown away. I could appreciate, for example Succour, much, much more now I understood where it came from. I’ve subsequently, whenever I’ve saved a little money, picked up what I can afford from the band’s catalogue. Including stuff such as their Cocteau Twins remixes (1). 

That was back in August of last year, and while I did cover Everything Squared, the expansive article I envisaged, again, never appeared. However, with the announcement of a fresh Quique reissue I’ve finally been able to use some of those notes now. 

The incredible Quique and its irresistible expanded Redux can be ordered directly from Seefeel. 

(1) I’ve since interviewed The Cocteau’s Robin Guthrie and now have some new ideas / angles. Perhaps, this year, time permitting, it’ll happen.