From the Y Crate, #8:
“Release” by SEEED (WEA)
Berlin-based eleven-piece dancehall massive Seeed are one of my favourite Reggae acts of recent years; the fact that most of their songs are in German could be the reason why they’re not that well known in the UK. Having said that, each time they have played here, they’ve gone down really well. Their Glastonbury gigs a couple of years ago got rave reviews (please don’t tell Noel Gallagher that they’ve had ragga at Glasto; he’ll probably have a heart attack). And when they played east London’s Cargo as part of the amusingly named Fertiliser Festival, demand to see them was so high I spent half the duration of the gig in a long queue outside the venue, chatting with some very friendly Germans. Good times…
“Release” isn’t my all-time favourite Seeed track (that honour goes to the first song of theirs that I heard: “Dickes B”, their ode to their home town). But it is the first one of theirs I heard that was entirely in English (well, patois actually. But that’s close enough). Its rhythm track borrows heavily – and quite cleverly – from the Cure’s “Close to Me”.
GEORGE LUKE 