Hawksmoor : Telepathic Heights

James McKeown’s electronic music project Hawksmoor goes deep. McKeown’s sound is dense, heady, and pulls from the best that the early German electronic scene had to offer. Combining the warmth of analog via Moogs, Modular synthesis, guitar, and bass with a rhythmic backbone that feels more implied through mood, Hawksmoor makes the kind of music you sink into. Late night analog excursions in hazy, half-finished suburban basements; beanbag chair, Pioneer turntable, and tower speakers that shake you to your core while the cosmic tones from circuits and patch cables open portals to new dimensions.

It’s heady, man. Heady.

I came to Hawksmoor via UK label Spun Out Of Control. Spun Out Of Control was pretty much my jukebox for the bulk of Pandemic-mania, or 2020. Hawksmoor’s Methods Of Dreaming was a warm dip in analog bliss; touches of Krautrock, psych/ambient, and even hints of Pink Floyd at their most musically hypnotic and least talky. It was a fantastic album and one that is most deserved of a vinyl release. Albums like Concrete Island(with Heartwood Institute), On Prescription, and Head Coach followed, adding even more to the mystique and allure of the Hawksmoor sound.

If you’re counting, that’s three albums in less than three years(not counting his release Saturnalia with Library Of The Occult.) Lots of music goodness, and James McKeown isn’t stopping any time soon. Hawksmoor’s latest is the dizzying and cosmic Telepathic Heights, a richly-layered, frontal lobe-melting Berlin School future classic. It’s Hawksmoor’s first release with the great Soul Jazz Records. 10 tracks of heady synth excursions that lay waste to your psyche and put you in a state of circuital bliss.

For first time callers: “He(McKeown) first created ‘Hawksmoor’ five years ago as an imaginary hauntological soundtrack, inspired by the six Hawksmoor churches in London. Further releases have followed on Environmental Studies, the cassette-only label ‘Spun Out of Control’, Castles in Space and The Library of The Occult.” “For his debut on Soul Jazz Records, Hawksmoor has created a fascinating blend of these two sensibilities – a love of German electronic music of the 1970s alongside the British retrofuturism and cultural memory bank aesthetic of hauntology – Ghost Box, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Advisory Circle, Focus Group etc.” – Soul Jazz Records

As with previous releases McKeown sticks to all analog to create his alien yet familiar sound world. Moog, electronic drums, guitars, and bass are the foundation to building the imaginative and retro-futuristic sound world of Hawksmoor. Opener “Cycloid” buzzes and with a kind of futurist glee; synths crackle and wheeze over a kind of hydraulic rhythm. Touches of Cluster, Roedelius and German pharmacist-turned-synth-builder Rüdiger Lorenz come through in this great opener. “Praxis” wakes slowly like an off-world sunrise. A kind of synthetic optimism emanates on this slow burn track. Title track “Telepathic Heights” spans out over six minutes in contemplative swaths of noise. Synthesizers are accented with reverberating guitars, bringing to mind the great Michael Rother.

Elsewhere the cool and ethereal “Athanasia” builds like a slow burn with shimmering electric guitar and cosmic synth lines, while “Synesius” wavers like light emanating from a darkened skyline. There’s a tactile quality to the sonic palate here; sounds you can feel as well as hear as they wash over you. “Abstract Machines” ends the journey with a definitive conclusion. A cosmic, widescreen fade to black that emanates an almost melancholy sigh with the end in sight.

Telepathic Heights locks into Berlin School luminaries, while also fitting right in with contemporaries like Jonas Munk, New Frontiers, Wojciech Golczewski, Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning and Neil Hale’s Correlations.

With his Soul Jazz Records debut, James McKeown takes Hawksmoor to some of the headiest places it’s been up to this point. 10 tracks that ebb and flow through modular synthesis expertly, while never coming across as too analytical. There’s a natural flow in these songs; buzzing and brimming with human circuitry which gives the album a sense of urgent intent. Telepathic Heights is required listening for the musically adventurous, modular-inclined, and for those seeking an electronic album you can feel on both an intellectual and visceral level.

Order ‘Telepathic Heights’ via Soul Jazz Records here.