Floating Away With No Thought Of Coming Back

Nearly 62 minutes of Seahawks to usher in the last day of the first weekend in 2025.

 

I almost went for a Seahawks selection last Saturday, but I held off as I wanted to listen to the current album, Time Enough For Love, a few more time before deciding on which track(s) to include. I think the brief pause has made for a more satisfying collection overall.

The selection spans 2012 to 2024, with a big gap between 2013 and 2021, not for lack of quality tunes, but sometimes that's just the way the final track list pans out. Roughly half and half Seahawks originals and remixes of other artists, namely The Horrors, Private Agenda, Eddie Chacon and Tim Burgess. I ended up with three choices form the current album, plus a couple of remixes of Seahawks by Gatto Fritto and Laurel Halo.

Pete Fowler - and Jon Tye, especially - pop up in their own right and under various other aliases in my music collecton, but the music they've created together as Seahawks is something special indeed.

Not quite chill out, there are some hefty beats to be found within, but definitely in the realms of calming and replenishing music.

 

1) Comes In Waves (Seahawks Skying Suite): The Horrors (2012)

2) Malanai Ascending (Seahawks Remix): Private Agenda (2021)

3) Invisible Sunrise (Gatto Fritto New Gold Dawn Mix By Ben Williams): Seahawks (2013)

4) A New Star In The Sky (Album Version): Seahawks (2024)

5) Hurt (Seahawks Remix): Eddie Chacon (2021)

6) New Future Blue (Laurel Halo Deserts Of Mars Mix By Laurel Chartow): Seahawks (2013)

7) Journeys Out Of Mind (Album Version): Seahawks (2024)

8) Stoned Alone Again Or (Seahawks Remix By Pete Fowler & Jon Tye): Tim Burgess (2013)

9) Sail Across The Moon (Album Version): Seahawks (2024)

2012: Higher: 1

2013: Oh No I Love You More: 8

2013: Phantom Sunset: 3, 6

2021: Hurt EP: 5

2021: Submersion EP: 2

2024: Time Enough For Love: 4, 7, 9

Floating Away With No Thought Of Coming Back (1:01:45) (KF) (Mega)

Sat In The Passenger Seat, Having An Out Of Body Experience

A selection of long songs for Sunday, designed to transport you...well, take your pick from Mars or Dorset and all points in between, or just head straight out of this galaxy and see what else is out there.

 

The shortest song in this selection clocks in at a few seconds under twelve minutes, the longest contribution edges over fourteen and a half. Too many beats between them all to be considered pure ambient music perhaps, but they all have enough going on to stimulate the senses.

First stop, Japan and a couple of electronic music legends. Magic Dome by Yoshihiro Sawasaki was (I think) his debut release, first appearing on the flip of the Neocrystal 12" single, then the album Perfumed Garden, both in 1994. 

Soft Ballet was formed by Ryoichi Endo, Ken Morioka and Maki Fujii in 1986, though my introduction to them was via their remix albums featuring Western artists such as LFO, Jah Wobble, Orbital, Fluke and Global Communication. The third and final in the series reworked 1995 album Form, by which time Soft Ballet had split, although they reunited for a couple of albums in the early 2000s. 

Speaking of Global Communication, Tom Middleton resurrected the GCOM alias in 2021 for a 20-track magnum opus E2-XO. Most of them are pretty short, several clocking in at a minute or less, until you get to the album closer, Beyond The Milky Way. Just ride the stellar wave and drift into the unknown.

 

The Orb and Youth transformed ambient music in the late 80s/early 90s, whether separately or together. I've plumped for the latter, with a remix of Spanish Castles In Space, one of my favourite songs by The Orb, in any incarnation. Alex Paterson and Martin Glover have continued to work together, not least last year's Orb album, Prism.

 

Back down to Earth now, more specifically Wimborne in Dorset. Al Stewart grew up there and Robert Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, so you know the vibes are good.  MLO were/are Jon Tye and Peter Smith; Jon continues to push the ambient envelope, as one half of Seahawks.

 

Matt Gunn is the new kid on the block, relatively speaking, with a clutch of great releases on the Paisley Dark and Electric Wardrobe labels. Matt's first album Mostly Fiction is a good jumping on point, though his EPs also come recommended.

 

Youth is back for the finale, with an end of the millennium reworking of psychedelic rockers Gong. I first discovered Steve Hillage as the credited producer on the 12" single of Sweat In Bullet by Simple Minds, later as a founder of System 7, so my journey back to Gong was full of detours and diversions, but I eventually got there. A bit like this compilation, if you will.

 

1) Magic Dome (Full Length Version): 澤崎吉広 (Yoshihiro Sawasaki) (1994)

2) No One Lives On Mars (Even Longer) (Remixed By Carl Craig): Soft Ballet (1995)

3) Beyond The Milky Way (Full Length Version): GCOM (2021)

4) Spanish Castles In Space (Extended Youth Mix By Martin Glover): The Orb (1991)

5) Wimborne (Spacetime Continuum Mix By Jonah Sharp): MLO (1994)

6) Space Drohne I & II (Album Version): Matt Gunn (2023)

7) A Sprinkling Of Clouds (Full Length Edit By Youth aka Martin Glover): Gong (1999)

 

1991: Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions: 4

1994: Perfumed Garden: 1

1994: Wimborne Revisited EP: 5

1995: Forms: Remix For Ordinary People: 2

1999: You Remixed: 7

2021: E2-XO: 3 

2023: Mostly Fiction: 6

Sat In The Passenger Seat, Having An Out Of Body Experience (1:30:02) (KF) (Mega)

Brain Is Burning From Losing

After a week of looking back, Friday's selection brings us back up to date with an 8-track trawl through the last couple of years, heavily weighted towards music from 2023.

Private Agenda is Sean Phillips and Martin Aggrowe. "In their teens," says the bio, "[they] dipped in and out of musical projects with their peers, swapping instruments, records and literature along the way. What united these early efforts was a growing fascination and exploration of a multi-genre, interdisciplinary approach to musical projects. If Private Agenda didn’t exist in name, it existed in spirit from an early stage." Private Agenda released the excellent Submersion EP on Lo Recordings in 2021, closing with a remix by label boss - and one half of Seahawks - Jon Tye under his Ocean Moon moniker.

From Ocean Moon to Moon Ocean, one of a series of top notch EPs released by Justin Robertson this year. Confluence Of Torrents is one of five tracks on this EP, featuring music dusted off from the vaults, which speaks to the quality and volume of Justin's work that sometimes there's just too much good music to release all at once.

I was certain that I'd previously featured at least one version of Iron Warrior by Revival Season here, but apparently not. I've gone for the Dubstrumental, one of three Raf Rundell remixes of this standalone 2021 single. Revival Season is Brandon Evans (B-Eazy) and Jonah Swilley (Mattiel) and their debut album is landing in early 2024.

in 2021, Steady State produced the rather excellent Ofra Haza-sampling Shake Up Your Mind. In turn, those wonderful people at Paisley Dark Records commissioned around two dozen remixes. Most of these were compiled for Shelter Me: Beats For Beds: The Remix Album, proceeds going to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter. No longer available to buy, this extract from the album is by Clandestino and amazingly, the quality of the remixes is that good throughout.

The Machine Soul aka Robert Folkesson released the Engineered State EP in the summer, another solid release on Paisley Dark Records. The bio on Resident Advisor reads, "Robert was part of the early rave and house scene in Stockholm, DJ-ing at various underground warehouse parties and legendary clubs like Deep in Bleep, Monday Bar and Le Garage under the DJ Robo moniker. The Machine Soul is Roberts’s brain child for producing deep and groovy tech and deep house" and Engineered State delivers and then some. I've included the original mix here but the remixes by Högt I Tak, Ian Vale, UFO and Jay-Son are also highly recommended.

JP Buckle is Jason Peter Buckle, perhaps better known as a member of The All Seeing I and collaborating with Jarvis Cocker as Relaxed Muscle in the early 2000s before becoming a core member of JARV IS... at the turn of this decade. Redefining prolific, Self Respecting Unobsessed is a track from the album Radio Silence, the seventh of ten (so far) albums and EPs this year alone. 

bdrmm is Hull-based four piece comprising Ryan Smith, Jordan Smith, Joe Vickers and Conor Murray. bdrmm was born as a solo bedroom project by Ryan and after a demo got interest from Radio 1, Ryan roped in his brother and mates to flesh out the band and the sound. bdrmm's music is typically described as shoegaze though you wouldn't know this from listening to Daniel Avery's superlative remix. How much of bdrmm's original music is left in the mix is debatable, but it's a cracking tune all the same.

After the previous song's brain burning beats, some cool water to quell the flames with A Place To Bury Strangers remixed by Annie Hart of Au Revoir Simone. Sonically, the songs is very reminiscent of the latter; vocally it's all the former, Oliver Ackermann's lyrics left intact. Another gem from this year's See Through You Rerealized remix album.

With the exception of the Steady State song, all of today's selections and their parent releases can be found and purchased on Bandcamp.

 

1) P.S.R (Ocean Moon Mix By Jon Tye): Private Agenda (2021)

2) Confluence Of Torrents: Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s (2023)

3) Iron Warrior (Raf Rundell Dubstrumental): Revival Season (2021)

4) Shake Up Your Mind (Clandestino Melt Up Your Mind Mix By Joe Morris & Nick Smith): Steady State (2021)

5) Engineered State (Original Mix By Robert Folkesson): The Machine Soul (2023)

6) Self Respecting Unobsessed: JP Buckle (2023)

7) Port (Daniel Avery Remix): bdrmm (2022)

8) Nice Of You To Be There For Me (Annie Hart Remix): A Place To Bury Strangers (2023)

 

2021: Iron Warrior EP: 3

2021: Shelter Me: Beats For Beds: The Remix Album: 4

2021: Submersion EP: 1 

2022: Port EP: 7

2023: Engineered State EP: 5

2023: Moon Ocean EP: 2

2023: Radio Silence: 6

2023: See Through You Rerealized: 8

 

Brain Is Burning From Losing (45:21) (KF) (Mega)