Pete Fowler and Jon Tye AKA Seahawks turn in a new, fun record for Be With`s on-going collaboration with legendary library music house, KPM. The two obviously know their stuff, be it vintage vinyl or antique analogue gear. But despite this serious knowledge I’ve always felt that there`s a strong sense of humour behind what they do. The references to past, and sometimes discarded genres, is knowing, done with a wink, but never arch or ironic. There`s a genuine love and affection for the samples and sources of inspiration, no matter how unhip. Born out in a lightness of touch, where an in-joke is never hammered home. They’re laughing, but it`s definitely with, not at. Branding their own output, “deck-shoegaze”, like Pete`s paintings and drawings, they’ve created a whimsical world of their own. A bit like a musical Vic & Bob. 

Seahawks` addition to KPM`s canon, Island Visions, is a selection of shorts. Mini symphonies set to sleepy syncopation. Honed for the hammock. Constructed from computers, kalimbas. Oboes and Oberheims. Sexy saxes and sequences. Flutes in inner flight. Imagine if Screamadelica were simply stoned, instead of tripping. Pete`s artwork for the album presents you with a map of a landscape where virtual waves crash in crystalline coves. Froth and fizz into pixelated surf. Like Black Dog Productions on a beach holiday. Where loon birds announce trance supernovas of electric fusion-esque solos, and sultry sirens call from distant silicon shores.

Side A represents sunrise, while on Side B the sun sets, the cocktails are served and someone switches on the disco mirrorball, and the house four-to-the-floor. Starting a dance of gamelan gongs, and stroked steel pans. Those loons making one final circle, before dubbed-out thuds and forceful chugs fuel full-moon festivities. Tremolo`d strings, blue arcs, and thunder-thumbed bass bumping this music of modern machined exotica – the eddy of waterfalls, fresh water streams, with code for current. Sending the synthesized sounds, spiraling. All caught in gravity’s spin. Pulled towards a serene cicada serenade fade.

Seahawks` Island Visions is released on April 17th. There are no Soundcloud or Youtube clips available at the moment – so the best place to listen, and order, is over at Be With Records.