Search - Hawke :: Heatstroke

With his second album under the pseudonym Hawke, San Francisco dance innovator Gavin Hardkiss returns with an ultra-rich smorgasbord of sound, a record that is alternately tranced-out, tribal, psychedelic, and chilled. The blissful cover photo (smiles, sun, blue water) and inner-sleeve travelogue shots are a clue: Hawke means to take you from sunny beaches to darkened clubs with only his music as a guide. The beats are flexible throughout, adorned with a sampled Charlton Heston, New Orleans horns, blaring synths, whistles, bongos, and a million vocalists. Heatstroke has an airheaded West Coast quality, signaled by bubbly sound pastiches and pert, fluffy beats. But Hawke weaves together his ambient escapades, house airs, and driving breakbeats with such a sophisticated hand, you never notice the seams; it's easy to groove and go with Hawke's ethereal flow. --Ken Micallef