FC Kahuna – Hayling [City Rockers/Skint Records]

After all the fevered anticipation, preparation and ritual of an epic night that saw you once again delve into your tribal recesses and release yourself into the very now of things; after the reconvening of the pack and the chatty saunter home through open, empty streets; after all the tea and tokes and deeply positive, meandering conversation; after the sounds have become ever gentler and the unwatched sun begins to sneak shards of hazy light through chinks in the curtain, the company decimated, the conversation dissipating into the ether; then comes the cosy chill of introspection, time edging into consciousness and the unformed spectre of unspecified doubt ghosting like a mist over the calm but chaotically littered room.

Taken from the album Computer Says Yes, FC Kahuna’s ‘Hayling’ is an achingly lush post-club anthem that caters beautifully for this overture to the clubber’s comedown. With a gorgeous but glitchy cosmic melody and delicate, consolatory mantra it evokes this intangible transitional moment of reconnection with the earthly while gently cushioning the fall with empowering words of solace.

For many years I had only known ‘Hayling’ as one of several standout tracks on the blissed-out third part of Tom Middleton’s triptych mix The Sound of the Cosmos, thus being spared the cruel, unhinged twist the track’s close had in store. After Icelandic vocalist Hafdís Huld’s kind words have evaporated and the comforting melody has done its round of the heavens, the bubble is lanced and the spell unceremoniously broken in an effect like a whirlpool quickening to oblivion in the plug hole.

Bummer.

The original mix of ‘Hayling’ features on FC Kahuna’s 2002 album Computer Says Yes and was released variously on 10″ and 12″ formats with remixes [City Rockers] and later as 7″ 12″ promo, CD single and again on the rereleased album [Skint Records].

As mentioned ‘Hayling’ also appears on The Sounds of the Cosmos by Tom Middleton [Hooj Choons] and inevitably (and rightfully) features on countless other chill out and superclub compilations and mixes.