DOWN TIME

REDSHIFT owe their existence to the 'Berlin School' of electronic composition from the 1970s, but their rise in the 1990s was facilitated just as much by the burgeoning electronic scene in the UK and continental Europe as a desire for nostalgia.

This then, their third album, is based on inspiration from both the 1970s and 1990s. There is much here indebted to ambient house ('All Things Bright' is very dubby, for example). The format adopted for their first two albums (two 20 minute plus compositions either side of two shorter works) has given way to a more even spread of sound, the 'Ricochet'-like epics replaced by something more like 'Stratosfear' - melodic and with greater structure. Just as with TANGERINE DREAM twenty years previous to this, the change is largely unsuccessful. 'Nails' is rather irritating, relying on the master volume knob a little too often to create its not-so-subtle effect. Rather than a constant aural bath, this is more like a shower when someone is turning a hot tap on and off somewhere else in the house.

Subsequent tracks are laced with an experimental ambient feel influenced by contemporary electronic artists. 'Mania' is an uptempo piece drenched in distorted guitar, one of the highlights here. 'High Noon' is a rather less successful attempt to invoke the wild west. The aforementioned 'All Things Bright' lumbers along like Frankenstein at a Halloween party. By contrast, 'Protoland' is a sparse affair to start with, a slow builder that would not have been out of place on TANGERINE DREAM's 'Exit'. The title track is a rather nondescript affair, disappearing into a sandstorm of sound.

REDSHIFT forgo the simple TANGERINE DREAM nostalgia invoked by their first two albums for a more original sound, invoking THE ORB's dub and even SYSTEM 7's guitar glissade on occasion. However, my reaction to this eclecticism is more admiration than enjoyment.