If you’re looking for a concise but varied electronic record which puts melody first despite taking bits and pieces from ambient to acid, give Seafire a listen—chances are you’ll find what you were looking for, and more. A pleasant trip with unexpected stops along the way.
There is a deceptively simple air about Seafire. It is partly the run-time of thirty minutes for eleven tracks. It is partly the pretty clear divide on the record between beatless (or almost) ambient tracks like “Color Me,” “At Dawn,” or “Canyon Drive,” and the rhythms of “Southern England in Summer,” “Melodie d’Aout,” or the accurately-titled “THR (Dance Mix).” It is partly the apparently straightforward arrangements, and the sparsity of layers and instruments.
But that simplicity belies the core of Seafire, an album full of love for ambient, techno and synthesizers, among other things. The airy, ethereal pads that punctuate the record as it goes on open large pleasing vistas, and offer comfortable moments which leave the dance-infused tracks more room to operate their funky rhythms on us, although even the beats on this album sometimes have a light air of nostalgia and a sense of time passing, as with the lo-fi and melodic “Southern England in Summer.” Speaking of funky grooves, special mention goes to “Mavic 1,” a synth pop instrumental coming out of leftfield at the end of Seafire, complete with a gated reverb snare and a fm bassline. However surprising the track is at first, it does make sense on this record published by Sheffield label CPU—new wave from Sheffield like The Human League is a self-professed influence of Bochum Welt. And after more listens, it blends in, and tracks like “THR” even offers foreshadowing of this pop treat with its lyrical synth line.
If you’re looking for a concise but varied electronic record which puts melody first despite taking bits and pieces from ambient to acid, give Seafire a listen—chances are you’ll find what you were looking for, and more. A pleasant trip with unexpected stops along the way.
Seafire is available on Central Processing Unit (September 2019).
