Succour (album)

Background

After the release of Quique, Seefeel left Too Pure Records and signed to the more electronic music oriented Warp where they released the EP Starethrough and included on Warp's compilation album Artificial Intelligence II in 1994. Seefeel followed these releases with Succour in 1995.

Style

Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork compared the sound the groups previous album Quique, which contained stylistic traits of shoegaze and ambient dub where the new work appeared to be more influenced by Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, noting tracks like "Fracture" and "Vex" were "straight out of his playbook" while also containing beatless tracks "Meol" and "Utreat" that resembled the previously mentioned album.

Release

Prior to the album's release, a single for the track "Fracture" was released on 26 September 1994. Succour was released on 25 March 1995 by Warp. It was released on compact disc, cassette, vinyl and as a digital download. The album was not released in the United States and led to a temporary breakup of the group in 1996. Mark Clifford focused on his side-project Disjecta while Peacock, Fletcher, and Seymour joined Mark Van Hoen for his group Scala.

Reception

Allmusic described the album as "something of a disappointment" and "the LP was a bit too skeletal for most rock critics or music fans". A review by Glenn Swan for Allmusic, opined that "there are a couple rough spots, as [Seefeel] were supposedly having band problems at the time." Succour received a mixed review from Select stating the group had found their own identity, noting tracks like "Fracture", "Vex", "Meol" and "Succour" are "clearly the product of deeper research". The review concluded that the groups "voice is not quite their own yet", opining that "awestruck poor relations of μ-Ziq and Aphex's junkyard clang - especially "Cut" - are uncomfortably prominent".

Pitchfork Media praised the album in 2017, placing it on their "The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time" list. Their review declared it a "a singular album that has no equivalent—a sound so elemental, it’s no wonder the Designers Republic chose the cover they did."

Track listing

All tracks written by Mark Clifford except where otherwise noted.

Credits

Credits adapted from Succour compact disc sleeve.