How to Live

Seeland is Timothy Felton, Billy Bainbridge and Neil McAuley, sonic pioneers associated with Birmingham, England's "Retro-Futurist Electronic Scene." The group is often mentioned alongside Ghostbox artists like The Advisory Circle (who they have recently remixed) and Mordant Music as comprising the loose musical collective referred to as "hauntology." How to Live follows Seeland's critically acclaimed debut Tomorrow Today. Moving away from a drum-machine-dominated sound, the album is an altogether creamier confection. There are still chugging Neu grooves and soft-focus psychedelic electronics, but the sound is more all-encompassing, more organic, like slipping into a hot tub with a glass of homemade lemonade. Recorded on vintage synths and old analog equipment run through numerous pre-amps and filters, and mixed by Brian Duffy of Modified Toy Orchestra, How to Live sounds simultaneously ancient and modern - like Joe Meek meets Kraftwerk, or The Blue Nile produced by White Noise. With the hallucinatory exotica vibes of bands like Ducktails and Javelin, the band has a spectral quality, like a transmission from a parallel universe that is audible but not visible. The new album once again features artwork by Julian House.