COLDER

Cold, but not silent. Far away, but not forgotten. From the first small melody played on electric piano, Sister Moon is darkly captivating.

Moog sequencers like TD collide with deep, angry, almost Industrial sounding bass tones hurtled towards synth string sounds playing something like what you might hear from Dead Can Dance in the mid-1980s.

The shifts in tone, timbre, and pace all very natural while the instrumentation is very far from being organic. Indeed, very far from being easing. There will be no new age ambience here. No, flute sounds here mean business, the kind that you won't forget.

Sirens wail, relentless and solemn. Troops march from the darkness into a calm landscape, but that refuge could only last so long. There is still so much to explore.

Here the whole is certainly greater than any individual part of this 1 hour piece of music.

Derivative? Absolutely, and shamelessly done too. This is space music greatly improved, but owing so much to the musical form invented by the electro-pioneers of the 1970s.

This is progressive; this is a masterpiece. 5 stars.

We had this 3 day stretch of cold last week that we haven't experienced here for many years. I actually bought a portable heater as a backup in anticipation, along with picking this album "Colder" to be my soundtrack in the deep freeze. I work in a walk in freezer a lot that is beyond cold, especially when the fans come on which is every time you walk in. So I feel somewhat prepared for weather like this.

I own 3 REDSHIFT cds, and all are live or at least partially live like 1998's "Ether". I also have 2004's "Faultline", and of course "Colder" from 2011. These last two were performances that were recorded at the Hampshire Jam 9 Festival in England. And it's unfortunate that "Colder" doesn't have Rob Jenkins and his guitar on it, as they are down to a 3 piece here of electronics. And so perhaps "colder" is a good way of describing this one when compared to the other two albums from them that I own and mentioned already.

So yes I think "Ether" is the best of the three followed by "Faultline" then this one. We get six tracks worth just under 62 minutes. There's plenty of sequencers that will come and go that are contrasted with those spacey soundscapes to great affect. I agree with the other reviewer here that this music needs to be taken as a whole, over individual tracks. So no top three or anything like that here. Sure it's all been done before but this is a band that gets a lot of respect from other electronic artists, very influential although not very original either.

Still, this is a 4 star record in my world, just not one of their best in my opinion. But thanks for the audio during those bitterly cold days and nights.