ICE music

Seefeel are one of an elite set of electronic musicians whose work seems impervious to age. This is remarkable considering not only that the 90s havent aged that gracefully as a whole, but also that electronic music per se is constantly being made obsolete due to technological advance and the frenetic pace of changing fashions. Like label mates Boards Of Canada, and friend Richard James (aka Aphex Twin) the output of this act is so innovative that it will probably sound futuristic 50 years hence.

Listened to whilst driving round the icy fields of rural Somerset on the coldest day of the year, the music was its perfect accompaniment, almost merging with the baltic weather outside in musical synaesthesia.

The best environment in which to experience Seefeel- taken in Great Elm nr Frome

 It was a compilation CD that a colleague kindly made for me, which contained 13 tracks of the band's pre Warp output. It gave the inside of the cab a woozy yet crystalline sense of calm, an almost womblike sensation- there was I, cosy and cocooned against the fierce cold outside.

The sound Seefeel make is unique; ambient music with a distinctive almost dubby emphasis on bass, which provides much of the rhythm to their music. Sometimes pensive, and brooding but more often celestial and beatific, Seefeel provide a kind of ambiance which defies its own definition: it demands the centre stage. Not through force or abrasion but via the subtlety contained in their most affecting moments -notably the song 'Industrious,' from their sensational debut Quique (pronounced 'Keek'). The use of a glitchy rhythmic sample in this song, allied to the subtle and rare use of the human voice, ensures that the track reaches for the stratosphere.

They are a band well worth exploring even if ambient/ drone isn't usually your thing, as none of the tracks on Quique are, to my mind at least, inaccessible.

For fans of Loveless and wintry days.