New Wave and Post punk revival galore: The rise of The Killers and The Bravery

Yeah... it's been a while. i found out that I work much better when I don't feel the pressure of having to write on a regular basis, so from now on I'll just post whenever I feel like it and when I feel a band/album/song really deserves everyone's attention.

So... what now? Well, I've listened to two bands in recent months with GREAT delight. One of them should have deserved a complete article here in my Music Discoveries blog, however I was too busy/lazy to write about them about 4 months ago when I first heard their music... have you guessed who they are? Most probably you know what the "hot fuss" is all about... not yet??? Well, I'm talking about The Killers, who were a complete commercial success in every sense but, above all, I think they are a truly great band and a refreshing welcome to...ummm...post-punk/New Wave revival!!! That's my favourite modern music era so I might be biased in my opinions but I truly think what "Hot Fuss" did musically was really great. However, I'm most sure most people reading this already have listened to "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside"... and this one post isn't about The Killers anyway.

I first heard about The Bravery in the january edition of Spin. I downloaded the song Honest Mistake by them and I was sold!!!! I really liked the song. So what do they sound like?? Well... it sounds quite a lot like The Killers style, just not so Psychedelic Furs based. Hmmmm, well, singer Sam Endicott's singing style sounds to me a lot like Robert Smith's... with his playful high pitches at times (those high tones that almost seem to be saying "heck, it's my song, I'm going to sing it the way I want to sing it"). The guitars follow a very similar sound as The Killers and so does the bass work. However, in my opinion, what changes essentially is the nature of the electronic arrangements The Bravery uses. Compared to The Killers, The Bravery sounds a lot more dance oriented, a lot more electronic for that matter... I like the way their style is a really damned crazy combination of Post-punk guitars and some really cool danceable combination of New Wave/Funk electronics and bass lines (especially apparent in the song "Fearless").

I wouldn't like to look at The Bravery as it being in a competition with The Killers to see who's the best New Wave/Post Punk revival act. However, if I should mate comparison I would say that I like the way The Bravery has used its electronics more. The song construction is extremely clever, very original. Production is remarkably well done the whole album sounds as if it's been thought again and again many times, trying to find and add more details as if The Bravery's music was made of many musical layers... well, certainly they have done a great job.

Where The Killers is noticeably a Psychedelic Furs follower, The Bravery is not so obvious about its influences... although you can tell whoever it was it certainly belonged to that wonderful music era comprehended between the years 1978 and 1987. I see some traces of New Order (the beginning of Honest Mistake almost sounds like an updated Blue Monday), The Cure (not only the beginings but also the mid 90s era) and Siouxsie's playfulness in instrumentalisation and singing style and also some other bands like The Clash, The Mission UK, etc.

Yes, their sound still sounds like it comes from somewhere else and, in that sense, it's not mind-blowingly original, but what they do they do it really well. The Bravery has become (along with The Killers) a great detour from the garage band/indie band trend that seems to have had a big impact in contemporary music. I'm a huge fan of the early eighties too, so I can only say these two bands have given me a great sonic surprise :) I think both of them, The Killers and The Bravery, are very well worth checking out.

Facts: (click on the bands names to be taken to the iTunes Music Store sites of the bands)

The Killers fav. songs: Somebody told me, Mr. Brightside, Smile like you mean it (that's one of the coolest usage of a synth line I've heard in recent times!...plus, that stratocaster solo reminds me of the early days of U2's The Edge!), Jennie was a friend of mine (for a more rocker feeling).

The Bravery fav. songs: An honest mistake (an instant hit!), fearless (funkiness in all its electronic expression), Unconditional, Public service announcement (personally hate Endicott's singing in this one but.... what the hell! it's his

Hormonally Yours: Shakespear's Sister

Hey all, first of all I'm sorry for the recent lack of updates but my midterms got in the way of everything else in my life but my studies. Anyway, I haven't really been listening to much music lately, but I was hooked to an old album I've got which I was listening to for the last week, as if it had come back from my teen days. Actually this one was one of the firsts CDs I owned (my very first one was Joyride by Roxette). I'm talking about "Hormonally Yours" by the already disbanded british duo Shakespear's Sister. Formed by ex-bananarama (woohooo! 80s!) Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit they released two albums, but this is the only one I've actually listened to.

I don't think this band got much air time in America, but it did land some top 40 tunes in britain. As far as I'm concerned only the song "Stay" got into America's top 40 at some point during the years 92 and 93, but oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm not here to talk about how much of a hit one artist is. I've constantly had my things against pop music, but I do think Shakespear's Sister makes a honorable mention of pop (brit pop) music I REALLY like. It's very well elaborated and produced (no, it doesn't sound like a all-girls/boys band, nor like Robbie Williams). Remember it was around the firts years of the 90s. For that time the music in this album doesn't sound cheesy at all or anything. As I said it is very original and well crafted music.

Now, what I love about this album? Again, variety! The album landed three singles: "Stay", "I Don't Care" and "Hello (Turn Your Radio On)". The three singles are very different. the first one being a small ballad with a predominance of Detroit's falsetto high-pitched voice and a dramatic come into appearence by the other half of the band, Siobhan Fahey. The whole band has a concept of a sibling rivalry in it. Most of the songs are interactions between the two members of the band (both vocals), and in some of them there is a marked challenge between both of them (specially in this song). I'm not sure if this all completely true because I remember the video so well, I used to like it a lot, it was about a dying man and his girlfriend (Detroit) singing "stay stay with me" to him and then Fahey coming into scene and trying to take him from her with a malicious smile on her face singing that she should go accept facts and face reality ("you'd better hope and pray that you'll wake one day in your own world, 'cause when you dream at night they don't hear your cries in your own world"). I guess you more or less get an idea about the whole song. Fahey's appeareance in the song marks also a difference in the song's tone, it began as a ballad but suddendly it turns into a slow guitar based rock. Interesting, but I guess the video just makes it better.

About the other songs... well, I like "I don't care" because of its light hearted statement ("We hurt the ones we love love the most, it's some sort of form of compliment...I don't care if you talk about me, I don't care if you act like a queen..."). Once again you can see the whole topic about sibling rivalry, but again, this is much more light hearted than stay. The music is also very poppish and rythmic, all which gives it a proper tone for the whole topic of the song.

But definitely the song I like the most (and is amongst my top 20 favourite songs of all time) is "hello (turn your radio on)". A very simple beautiful song about the fragility of an intrascendent life. Let me copy the lyrics:


woke up this morning
and the streets were full of cars
all bright and shiny
like they'd just arrived from mars
and as i stumbled through
last nights drunken debris
the paperboy screamed out
the headlines in the street
another war and now the pound is looking weak
and tell me have you read about the latest freak ?
we're bingo numbers and our names are obsolete
why do i feel bitter when i should be feeling sweet

hello, hello turn your radio on
is there anybody out there ?
help me sing my song
la la la life is a strange thing
just when you think you learned how to use it
it's gone

woke up this morning and my head was in a daze
a brave new world has dawned upon the human race
where words are meaning less and everything's surreal
i'm gonna have to reach my friends
to find out how i feel
and if i taste the honey is it really sweet
and do i eat it with my hands or with my feet ?
does anybody really listen when i speak
or will i have to say it all again next week



The piano based melody adds to the whole feeling of the song. I love it dearly and it made me cry the first time I listened to it (call me cheesy hahahahha!). This song is sung by Fahey and she really does a great vocal work in this one. The final guitar lead solo finally leads to a conclussion, an explosion of feelings... "life is a strange thing, just when you think you learn how to use it it's gone...."

As I said before I like this band a lot. Really it's too bad they disbanded after realeasing this album in 1991. It's really has a really charming into it and I really wish they had released some new material. Oh, if you were wondering about the name of it, the album's mood swings were inspired by the pregnant state of both members at the time, thus the title "hormonally yours" which I like a lot :)

Facts:

Websites:
Fav songs: Hello (turn your radio on), Stay, I don't care, My 16th apology...
Similar artists: Perhaps post Eurythmics Annie Lennox would be a safe bet.

Air - Alone in Kyoto

Song: Alone in Kyoto
Artist: Air
Album: Talkie Walkie / Lost in Translation OST
iTunes music store link: "Alone in Kyoto" by Air


Here's another song I love in this film OST. Alone in Kyoto has to be one of the most mysterious songs I've heard in years. It tells you so much without really telling you anything, To me the whole meaning of the song is about mood and certain discoveries you get into musically and through images. It's hard to explain. Air, being the electronic pop band it is, made this song rely a lot on synths and electronic samples, but they tried to take care for the humanity of it. The final result is an amazingly human song full of feelings, sensations and small details, but with an inexplicable aura of mistery.

Then the piano chords again with the voice sounds just repeating something. In the end, the sound of the waves along with the piano once again. It's the final extasis of the song which makes you think that the conclussion might be an open one, with a different meaning depending on each listener.

Again, I have to say that as someone who has spent two years around Tokyo and Japan this song is VERY VERY representative of the way you sometimes feel while living there. I think the scene in the film in which it appears is very appropiate (Charlotte, fed up with Tokyo's confussion, leaves for Kyoto to see the traditional Japan, and realizes the beauty of its traditions and its simplicity while there... it's just a brief scene but it's very important for the whole meaning of the film).

I will review the complete album soon. Hope you enjoy listening to this song. I really find it to be a huge work of musical art and complexity in such simple grouping of melody, rythm and harmony.... plus mood!!

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

Song: Sometimes
Band: My Bloody Valentine
Album: Loveless / Lost in Translation OST
iTunes Music Store link: "Sometimes" by My Bloody Valentine

I have a huge respect for this band. To me they redefined the direction of music during the late eighties and the start of the nineties. I won't say much about the band except that Kevin Shields is a master composer and all his material is worthy of listening.

Anyway, about the song. I had heard this one on the Loveless album a long time ago. However it was only when I heard it in the film Lost in Translation in which I could gaze at the beauty of it.
So, what's up with this song? Well... it's a mid-tempo song about love. But it's not a love song. Actually, you can't really even tell what the vocalist is singing about because the voice mixes up with the rest of the heavy guitar sounds. You can only clearly hear the progression of chords and realize that it's heavy... As heavy and mesmerizing as a relationship can be. Yeah, I have a very special feeling for this song because to me it signifies a very real and difficult to explain sensations and feelings.

Heavy distorted guitars along with acoustic chords,a synth line going up on the scale, making it feel like a progression to an extasis which never comes. "Close my eyes, feel me now... I don't know how you could not love me now". I feel it's the perfect song for when you feel your going through hard times in a relationship and you want to do something about it. Then I also think it's really great for when you want to attain something that seems impossible, but you want to try to anyway because you feel if you don't you will regret it later, even if you never reach your goal. These are my thoughts about this song.

Actually the song follows a very simple structure of chords. But the heavily distorted sounds make it beautiful and full of TEXTURE!! You have to hear it to believe it. It's the most beautiful violent, harsh,ethereal and full of hope love song I've heard.

Finally, I can only recommend seeing Lost in Translation. As a former expat living near the Tokyo area, I can tell you the film really does portrait many of the feelings you get when you are alone in THAT one city. And listening to this song during a special sequence in the film is just mesmerizing. I loved this film so much that I cried when I heard this song while watching it.

A few changes in music discoveries...

Hey all, today I was thinking about the way I'm managing this blog. It's evident that I'm not putting much dedication to it, as I've been updating it very irregularly. One of the reasons I'm doing this is that, reviewing new bands, I try to find out as much as I can about them and their music, so it takes quite a while for me to be able to feel I know new bands and be able to "review" them.

So I was thinking maybe I should continue doing this... BUT, from now on I will do some other stuff. what do I mean? Well, everyday I have songs I focus on most of the day. Usually it's one or two songs I listen repeateadly during the day on my iPod. Sometimes it's complete albums I'm hooked to for some time and listen to them over and over. So I'll start reviewing not only new bands, but also particular songs and albums. I will not focus on the bands so much as the music in itself from now on.
I will however continue reviewing bands, but in order to be a bit more constant in this I want to focus on smaller things too. So I hope I will be posting more in coming weeks and months.

Hope everyone reading this will be glad about these new changes. I'm sure it's a valid way to make people get to know new music.

By the way... For every new song and album I review I'm putting a link to the iTunes Music Store, so you can hear samples of the songs I'm writing about. You need iTunes in order to access the store. Get it from http://www.apple.com/itunes
It's a really great program in itself for managing mp3 (it was voted the best PC program of 2003 by PC World)

RATE ME!!!

HEY ALL! This has got nothing to do with music, just something funny that came up. Just for you to know who is writing this, you can check out this. There's a site called HotOrNot.com. People submit their pictures there for others to rate from 1 to 10. Ok so here's a pic of me, so rate me!!!

http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=OERQERN&key=GYM

If you have your pic posted here tell me so that I can rate you too. This is so funny, I got two 7 votes and a 3 (bet that was a man voting!)

Anyway, again, this has got nothing to do with music, but it's funny anyway, so enjoy!

Queer Eye for the Scissor Sisters!

Oh man! it's been so long since I last blogged! It's been quite a difficult time for me, but alas, I got to listen to a lot of new fascinating music, so hopefully I'll be able to share with you all some of the stuff I'm interested in now.

So, one of the most interesting of the new bands I've been listening to is the Scissor Sisters. They have a couple of songs playing on the radio these days, but I came to know them about 7 months ago when I saw the "Comfortably Numb" video. The first time I saw it i did so at while running at the Gym, so I couldn't hear what the song was like, but I found the video really astonishing nonetheless. Later that night I saw the video again, surprise! it was THAT song!!!! I love Pink Floyd, so you must understand that I never imagined someone could do something like that to that song. I got the mp3 and played it for a friend the next day (he's also a big Pink Floyd lover)... he was horrified by the way such a masterpiece was "gay-ified". Well, just for you to know I thought otherwise and my opinion on this one cover track is that it's absolutely fascinating and captivating (even more because I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd.......... did I mention I like Pink Floyd?!).

Anyway, let me review that song first. Well, it starts as if the Rocky theme is going to follow... nothing farther from the truth! "Hello, hello, is there anybody in there?" and I know what this was all about. When I listened to this part the first time I heard the song my heart was beating fast I tell you! A big bass accompaining the whole rythm. My opinion is that the song has been VERY well crafted, and whoever thought of such a variation for such a song is an inventive genius. Now, listening to it I just have to close my eyes with my headphones on and dance to it... I haven't heard a more a song that has made me want to dance so badly in a long time... " AH AH AH I become... comfortably numb" and yes! It's the bee-gees all over again! Yes!!! It's DISCO FEVER ALL OVER AGAIN!! ..... I don't really like disco music but I do recognize the way it plays with rythm and melody, and this one has to be one of the coolest songs I've heard in a long time. Now, seven months after I heard it for the first time, I listen to it at least once or twice everyday, specially when I'm in the bus heading for university (I need something to wake up at that time, and this one does the trick VERY well!). I still wonder why they didn't nominate this video for Best Music Video in the MTV awards a few days ago, it is really THAT good. I'm not quite sure they played it very much in america though (I kept seeing it in a british channel we have here in my country... blessed cable television!), so maybe that's why. Anyhow, try downloading it from somewhere... and then tell me where you got it from, because I too want to have this video in my comp.

Now, they have a couple of singles as I said. They're "Take your Mama" and "Get it Get it". Both of them are very good, although quite different from each other. I'm not going to delve into much details on both of them, but there's something I do have to say about them. Both are as funky as they get, very danceable and cool. So, these three singles show more or less what happens with the rest of their sel-titled debut album. Variety is king (or even better "QUEEN" due to their big gay feeling... more on that in a moment), and two songs are not really much similar in the album. i found it incredibly remarkable that they could pull such a great album with so much variety, these people are really original in what they do (there's even a really cool song named "Tits on the Radio"!!!). There are certain elements that do keep repeating in the album though. Such are the use of heavy piano chord pondering stablishing rythms, the funkiness in (almost) all songs, and that voice that resembles so much the bee-gees style falsetto (which works VERY well and makes it much cooler in this band!). I think this is a VERY cool album and, unlike some of the albums I have reviewd so far, this is all about fun!!!! the album is really hilarious listening to. Recently I read a comment on it somewhere describing it, the reviewer said that "the album very well captured that sensation you get when you first step in a funky hairdresser saloon, knowing that you are in for a fun and exhilerating change of look". I have to agree on that mate!!

Now, people have constantly said that this they music is very gay.... I don't know if I would agree to that. I think only the lead singer is gay in this band, but I he certainly left an image on the band. Anyway, be it or not I think this band is really great fun. Besides, recently I'm having a lot of contact with the gay community here (I have a couple of friends who are gay) and I'm finding out that they're REALLY cool people (much cooler than many other people I know who are just plain dull most of the times). What I really love about gay people is that they're so carefree and extroverted. I find that really cool in people AND that lets them have great fun when they party too! So this weekend I think I will go with a friend of mine to a gay club here, which, by the way, has to be one of the best clubs I've ever been to... great music, great atmosphere!! I'd recommend you all to have the experience of going to a gay club sometime, it's really great stuff, just don't forget to be open minded.

Anyway, the Scissor Sisters is a great band I've been listening lately but not the only one... so be prepared for more updates soon. As always, please comment as much as you can!!!!! Suggestions are very welcome, or if you would like me to review any band you think is cool, that'd be great!

Facts:

Official Homepage: www.scissorsisters.com
Fav. Songs: Comfortably Numb, Laura, Tits on the Radio, Music is the Victim, It Can't Come Quicly Enough.
Similar artits: Hmmmm no idea, maybe Beck and Outkast could come close... somehow :S

Seabound: The soul in the machine...

Alright! Another review coming... first of all I must say I loved the comments a little person I have come to know left me here, it really does encourage me to keep posting reviews more regularly. Anyway, today's band is not new to me, I discovered it about 4 months ago when I was digging into electropop through the side-line magazine. This sort of music is VERY different from what I have reviewed recently. It's electropop for one thing, lots of synth pads and leads. It's not trance, house, goa or anything like that. Let me explain here after.

The first time I listened to Seabound it was BOOM, a revelation to me. Why? Because for a long time I have been looking for a band that can get under your skin with only electronic sounds. I'm not much into raving and stuff. This is quite different.

The first song I heard by Seabound was the one called "Watching Over You". It starts with a soft synthpad, slowly growing, inviting, and eternity of emotion in sound... it reminded me so much of the sensation of being in the sea at night, with no lights around, "From the ice, the blinding white. A schooner's gliding through the night" ......until the emotional and devastating melody shifter, as if space turned suddendly to reveal a new dimension of musica landscapes accompanied with the words "To the crag that braves the tide, To the beacon in the night...I trust in you, I'm watching over you". For a complete week these words delved into me. Very much the same way Maps by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs touched me at first, only this is a completely electro-bionical energy flow of sound (the music DOES sound like a mixture of bionic and electronic... as if there was the ghost of a machine was crying at you, so mechanical yet so human).

Anyway... next song heard was a lot faster "poisonous friend" which is now number 1 in Germany's alternative charts I believe. This one is a dance inducer in all aspects, but it speaks of so many other emotions, "Sometimes I watch her kill, Cold eyes and no restraint And I wonder how it feels To annihilate a friend". It was not as touching as "watching over you" but it was a good way to have a perception of how original this duo can be using sounds and rythms to create a completely different musical landscape.

Another song I was very interested in was simply named "torch". The same magical electrobionic sounds I so much appreciate about this band, the pace changed once again to bring yet another soundscape.

Up until now I don't think I have expressed what's what I like the most about this electro duo. Truth be said I love the way their sounds induce moods, they know very well how to drive the subconcious mixing electropop with ambient and when one listens to it your imagination just creates these extraterrestial landscapes, mixture of machinery and the deepest of the human self. I'm really interested in this sort of experimentation with ambient. Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II is the breakground album in this topic, using sounds only (no rythm, no melody, no nothing... sound in its deepest meaning) SAWII could induce you into very real and palpable soundscapes (if not into a really bad nightmare... it has been said that you should never get aslept while listening to this music).

Anyway, I've gone off topic here. Seabound remains one of my best discoveries in recent times. And it's even more important to me because it opened my eyes to the whole electropop genre and some really amazing music I had never heard of (mostly from german bands). I'm surely looking forward their next releases (they released the Poisonous Friend EP just about a month ago and it's simpy amazing).

Seabound has got two full albums made; "No Sleep Demon" and "Beyond Flatline". The later being by far my favorite since I feel they have evolved their sounds into the ambient genre a lot more than what they did in their first album. Listen to them both if you will, I'm sure if you're interested in looking for something new you won't be disapointed.

Facts:

Official homepage: www.seabound.de
Fav. Songs: Poisonous Friend, Torch, Watching Over You, Souldiver, Torn (from No Sleep Demon album)
Similar artists: Melotron, Icon of Coil, Covenant, Wolfsheim
Interesting fact: Beyond Flatline's songs all have gloomy and obsessed lyrics. For instance Poisonous Friend talks about some sort of serial killer roommate; Torch has some sort of apocalyptical view of how the world can be destroyed by desire in the form of fire, etc.

Here's a preview of Watching over you in 192kbs mp3 ....buy the rest of the album, it's great!

And here's one for my friend Cait: Poisonous friend

Metric: Old world underground, where are you now?

I've taken myself a whole week to listen to a wonderful band I just discovered and came to love, Metric.
This was kind of unusual. I was awaken at 3 am on an insomnia night. Turned on the TV, channel 43, MTV (my... it really does show how capitalism works here eh? too underground for afterhours Justin Timberlake freakies? heh).
I've got no idea what the show was named but it had to do with videos of not-so mainstream bands. They played this very very unusually simple video which completely caught my attention (after a post-apocalyptic mini-film some artsy wannabe stupid band video). The video it seemed was filmed with an amateur cameraman, with poor lightning effects, cheesy dancing, etc. It was so reminiscent of the very first generation of music videos in the late 70s (think Blondie videos!) . By the end of the video I concluded two things:

1) It was an 80s band I hadn't ever heard of and,
2) They ought to be british

Well, none of them actually. The song name was IOU and it sounded so kitsch, so cardigans and pulp (the band, not porn), so... I don't know... so creative (in a sort of way). The song started Old world underground where are you now?" and it continued into a crescendo of guitar riffs and frenetic drumplaying, an heavy on bass and piano interlude followed (as if inhalating for a big explosion), hesitation lyrics, and then... "Every ten year-old enemy soldier thinks falling bombs are shooting stars sometimes, but she doesn’t make wishes on them..." with the initial guitars. This one has got to be one of the coolest songs I've heard recently.

Actually "Old world underground, where are you now?" is the name of their latest album (debut? I'm not sure myself. The album itself goes around the ideas of the first song I heard by them, "IOU". It's very varied in style but it retains the british/80's feeling in some way or another. the title of the album actually tells you a lot about the whole idea of the album in my opinion, as if calling for the styles and influences from the past (later part of the 70s, 80s) but using them in order to build something that sounds like a very stylish retro with an affection for the modernity of the years (90s) that left their legacy in the form of the heavy guitar riffs and melodic usage of heavy sound (think of all the influence bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Pixies left for music after the last decade).

As strange as this all might sound I find Metric a very interesting band to look into in coming times. This all mainly because of their originality to mix styles and rhythms (you'll understand this when you listen to it).

The front-woman of the band is EMILY HAINES who is in my personal opinion a great music and lyrics writer, most of them deal with sarcastic criticism to the system (yes, I know nowadays it sounds so cheesy... but that's why you do need to be creative in order to make it sound like really great words of energy and not toilet flush-able naiveness). As far as I know Emily has lived and made music in places around North America and the UK, which does somehow explain the variety of the styles she uses to achieve Metric's sound.

Anyway, this is a great band I have really come to like. I hope I can see them live someday (I don't live in North America). In the meantime check it out and tell me what do you think.

Facts:

Most interesting songs (IMHO): "IOU", "Combat Baby", "Succexy"
Similar artists: The Cardigans, Pulp, The Muffs, Letters to Cleo, The Brilliant Green (japanese, excellent band by the way)
Official site: www.ilovemetric.com (it has lots of mp3 samples and you can watch the videos as well... check out IOU, it's ferociously simple)

Lack of updates

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything this week but I have an important exam due for friday morning, so I'm centering all my attention into it for the time being.

Expect some new reviews on a great band called Metric sometime saturday or sunday. In the meanwhile you can check out their official site and get samples of their music and watch their videos.

So, again I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I'm looking forward writting more stuff by the end of the week.

In the meantime send me an email, or post a comment and tell me if you know any bands you would like to see reviewed here. Perhaps your own band even! Also send me any comments you might have.

Mahler_seele