''Seance'' is the third album by the Australian

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band The Church, released in 1983. More atmospheric and brooding than its predecessor ''

The Blurred Crusade ''The Blurred Crusade'' is the second album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in March 1982 by EMI Parlophone. Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. Moving away from the new wave leanings of their d ...

''s jangling

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...

and upbeat rock, it shows a greater use of keyboards, with the guitars taking largely textural roles on many songs. While numerous tracks have become fan favorites over the years, the album saw considerably less success in Australia than previous releases and had limited exposure internationally. Apart from the psychedelic noise experiment "Travel By Thought", which prefigures the band's extended improvised tracks of the 1990s and beyond, all songs were written solely by

Steve Kilbey Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for the rock band the Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums and has col ...

. The album's most notorious aspect, both amongst the fan base and the band members themselves, is the heavy use of

gated reverb Gated reverb or gated ambience is an audio processing technique that combines strong reverb and a noise gate. The effect is often associated with the sound of 1980s British popular music. It was developed in 1979 by producer Steve Lillywhite and e ...

on the drum sound, particularly on the single " Electric Lash" where the snare fills have been likened to a "machine gun". This was the work of mixing engineer

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, IDLES, Black Re ...

who refused to remove the effect despite the disapproval of the band. Despite this frequent criticism, the tracks "One Day," "It's No Reason" and "Now I Wonder Why" are often considered stand-outs in the band's repertoire. The album yielded two minor hits - "It's No Reason" and "Electric Lash" - and stayed in the British independent charts for several months. In 2002 the album was remastered and reissued by EMI Australia, with a second disc containing two bonus tracks and promo videos for "It's No Reason", "Electric Lash" and "Fly". In 2010,

Second Motion Records Second Motion Records is part of Second Motion Entertainment based in Carrboro, North Carolina. The Label was founded in Chapel Hill, NC by Stephen Judge, who is the former manager of the rock band Athenaeum (who released two albums on Atlantic R ...

released a single disc remaster, including the two bonus tracks, as part of their ''30th Anniversary Series''.

Track listing

All songs written by Steve Kilbey, except where noted. # "Fly" - 2:09 # "One Day" - 4:37 # "Electric" - 6:02 # "It's No Reason" - 5:50 # "Travel by Thought" (Kilbey/Koppes/Ploog/Willson-Piper) - 4:34 # "Disappear?" - 5:47 # " Electric Lash" - 4:24 # "Now I Wonder Why" - 5:39 # "Dropping Names" - 2:58 # "It Doesn't Change" - 5:56 # "Someone Special" - 4:10 (bonus track, originally the B-side of "It's No Reason") # "Autumn Soon" - 4:28 (bonus track, originally the B-side of "Electric Lash")

Personnel

Credited to: *

: lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, string arrangements *

Peter Koppes Peter Koppes (born 21 November 1955) is an Australian guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of the independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. ...

: guitars, vocals, Hammond organ *

Marty Willson-Piper Marty Willson-Piper (born 7 May 1958) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as a former long-time member of the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church. He joined in 1980 after seeing an early gig where they were perform ...

: guitars, vocals *

Richard Ploog Richard John Ploog (born 29 October 1962) is an Australian drummer, songwriter, producer and singer who was a member of rock band The Church between 1981 and 1990. Ploog also drummed for Beasts of Bourbon in 1983, Damien Lovelock in 1988 and with ...

: drums, bongos, tambourine with *Mikela Uniacke (aka Michelle Parker): Note: User may have to search again and provide details at 'Titles' e.g Unguarded Moment; or at 'Performers' Church backing vocals on "It's No Reason" *Russell Kilbey: harmonica on "Now I Wonder Why"

References

{{Authority control 1983 albums The Church (band) albums