When
Seefeel's 1994 Peel Session was released in 2019 as part of Warp Records' WXAXRXP Sessions boxed set, bundled with other transmissions from late-'90s signees
Boards of Canada and post-millennial arrival
Oneohtrix Point Never, it made plain the band's role on the label as stylistic progenitors. The four tracks, despite lying dormant for 25 years, weren't outmoded relics. Their swirled compounds of dub, dream pop, industrial, and techno remained transportive, almost psychoactive. That previously unreleased recording served as a prelude to a deeper excavation with
Rupt and Flex (1994-96). An attractive anthology, it combines the albums
Succour and
(Ch-Vox), the
Fracture/Tied single and
Starethrough EP, and an array of alternate versions and remixes that surfaced on low-profile releases as late as 2019. There's also a bounty of non-negligible archival material -- 75 minutes' worth -- that at times is nearly as fascinating and heady as the previously released goods.
Seefeel's Warp period followed a prolific 1993 on Too Pure that culminated with the double-LP
Quique, and the band's output during this time became both leaner and remarkably variegated. Although
Starethrough EP's title track was as vaporous and heaving with dubwise bass as anything off the preceding album, the Warp debut also contained "Spangle," an aptly titled indulgence with
Sarah Peacock's processed vocals at their most sugared. (Not for nothing was the track selected by label co-founder Steve Beckett for the Warp20 series.) The two sides of the band's later 1994 offering,
Fracture/Tied, went even farther out with shards of battering percussion and abrasive hip-hop rhythms.
Succour in turn ranged from seductive to assaultive, and in its most thrilling moments -- particularly the atypically rapid "Vex," a banger in the figurative and literal senses -- mixed the moods. Then came
(Ch-Vox), delivered to
Aphex Twin's Rephlex label (in return for the AFX remixes of the Too Pure-era "Time to Find Me") with some of
Seefeel's most skeletal and baleful compositions. Out of the rarities, most noteworthy is
Autechre's gently knocking 12-minute expansion of "Spangle," a contemporaneous remix that
Seefeel released on their own in 2003.
Rupt and Flex is CD/download-only. On vinyl, its contents are spread across three multi-LP releases: "redux" editions of
Succour and
(Ch-Vox), and the compilation St/Fr/Sp, which are also available as individual downloads. ~ Andy Kellman