Seefeel – Sol.Hz

Seefeel became known in the mid-1990s as the first Warp act with guitars. Perhaps because of their hybrid sound, too, the band around Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock were quickly forgotten again, or slightly underestimated: too electronic for the indie-rock crowd, too guitar-heavy for Aphex Twin disciples. With Sol.Hz, 15 years after their first self-titled comeback album and already hinted at by two mini-albums last year, another Seefeel work now appears.

Typical guitar sounds have long since disappeared, except perhaps as nuances and suggestions, such as the subtle overtones and feedback in »Everydays«. Often the origin of the sounds is obscured, with voice used as an instrument. This means that not only supposed genre boundaries but also song and track structures dissolve into the completely abstract.

No stories are told here, there are no drops or other IDM tricks. Rather, across the nine songs, very many sound surfaces, strangely pulsing or stumbling beats and wavering melodic loops create different atmospheres and feelings – between weird and eerie, between claustrophobia and paranoia, there is plenty here that is evoked. When tension is built, as in »AM Flares«, it is never truly resolved – one is left with unease and with various states of suspension. Sol.Hz thus shows impressively why music is the most abstract of all the arts: through symmetrical vibrations of air, the emotions of recipients are manipulated. Pretty wild, when you think about it.