Seefeel "Succour (Redux)" (3LP)

WARPLP28R / Warp Records 2021 / 3LP, Reissue, Remastered

Just as paradigm-shifting ideas are met with some cautious scepticism when they first occur, the history of Seefeel’s second LP Succour is a little chequered. Coming in hot from the success of their 1993 debut Quique — regarded as a prophetic example of shoegaze’s eventual transformation into post-rock — a newly minted contract with Warp would prove symbolic of where the group would steer this project next. The few “rock” elements of its full-length predecessor had evaporated, and vast spaces of dub and ambient would come to inform 1995’s Succour. Skeletal rhythmic elements amalgamating into their brooding, elemental and completely singular sound.

Bookending tracks ‘Meol’ and ‘Tempean’ open up like two gaping mouths on a mottled, heavy beast of droning synthesis, laying the groundwork for the world-enveloping tones Stars of the Lid would later produce. The delicate balance of weights teeters throughout the LP, crushing up sheet metal percussion on the techno-minded ‘Fracture’ and ‘Rupt’, which both simultaneously recall Aphex Twin’s rhythmic experiments and large-scale dub textures. The latter style is heavily hinted in the third LP of mostly unreleased tracks in this expanded (Redux) edition, all delay-drenched and booming with bass.

Seefeel proselytised the limitless potential of the post-rock genre with Succour — and produced one of the 1990s’ greatest albums in the process.