Although SOFT WATCH claims to cover a wide variety of connected musical areas, we make no secret that, at it's core we cast the kleig onto Experimental & Industrial areas, with the areas of Electronic (Eurock/Space Rock, call it what you will) & New Age being those we feature only occassionally. This is partly due to the fact that, no matter how much you expect from the groups in these areas, they nearly always let you down. For years the Electronic composers have offered much but delivered little (in my biassed opinion), using what sound like expensive presets in far-reaching fantasies with a few synthetic fireworks to say This Is Electronic! And their passive kin have been equally as unfulfiling, self-indulging in samey music based on pastel tunes about Arthurian legends, self discovery & Faeries. While I basically like both styles, they leave me thinking 'with a little development...' while really you should enjoy what is there, not what might be. So receiving this tape I expected it to be played once or twice, reviewed then more or less discarded - more bones to the open grave of hope & expectation. So imagine my surprise to discover a recording which has one foot in either style...and actually manages, not only to deliver first class, but become an instant classic & a prize among my collection. Surprise compounded, as it consists of no less than 10 composers, none of whom fall outside the realm of wonderful. Read on if you must, but you can get this tape for a fiver, then be refunded on your next purchase, so send now - I doubt you'll be disappointed. For a second opinion, see JUSTIN MITCHELL's PURE page in the Nov.'92 issue of LIME LIZARD! Side one begins with "Calvary" by MICHAEL NEIL, an atmospheric, amorphous piece suggesting, not so much the vacuum of space as a cavernous other-dimension full of brightly-coloured unEarthly images - incandescent bodies seen from a distance - alive, suspended in air in defiance of gravity, vessels designed for travel through undefined distance - not space, not time, but some other measure. "Shea Gwahir" also by MICHAEL NEIL is a much more distinctive piece by him - an actual composed instrumental built minimally on gated punchy drums, clattering sequence, blasting giant synth & a sky-reaching lead synth which, despite it's fantasy composition, compliments the music exactly & tickles the gland which produces that warm feeling akin to adrenalin, which washes over you in the presence of magnitude. "Lonely People" by MARK GRIFFITHS is closer to New Age in it's quiet little sad, reflective theme reminding me a little of a less obvious SHADOWS trying to create something more for relaxation than for tune. A gentle, pensive portrait with guitar & synths (flute, horn etc.) over a rippling chime sequence. "Heartstone" by PAUL NAGLE is a piece with a bright, morning in Eastern lands feel to it, based on a continually rising sequence. May layers of keyboards drift in & out, giving the piece a sense of unreality. Again this is a sad-sounding piece, tuneless in that no sound shapes stick out to hook you, yet the overall sound is delightfully pacifying. "Circles & Ritual" by BEN KETTLEWELL closes side one, a more strange, almost Industrial thing with watery synthetics & sudden runs of electronic beat, all moving towards a passive rhythmic piece which falls outside that which is featured above. It reminds me of the strange jungly rhythms TALKING HEADS & BOURBONESE QUALK create, except that this one is warmer, more passive & could have been recorded in some red stoned underground cave with ritualistic paintngs, thousands of years old, staring down at the musicians. JOISSANCE looks on from darker corner, nodding approval yet frowning that he would have used a more harsh sound. Side two opens with "Day Of Reckoning" by KEITH SCARTERFIELD has to be the most distinctive track on the entire album in my opinion - a gigantic, majestic piece which might be a dark fanfare or the incidental music to some hi-tech movie. It's dark, with the brooding promise of the incidental music to TWIN PEAKS, except this time, you feel, it will actually deliver what it promises. Good enough to make a single, except it probably would be too good to chart. A more complex brother to SPK's "Zamia Lehmanni". "Shifting Sands" by CARL MATTHEWS is a non-beat composition which follows on quite neatly from the previous piece - similarly darkish mood, with a incidental film soundtrack feel to it. It might describe a darkened woodland during late Winter/early Spring when snow melts dripping from pine needles & everything is damp & cold, yet gravid with optimism of life reborn. "Mirage Church" by GROWING CONCERN also seems gravid with something...undisclosed beauty? potential held in a veiled future? I can only guess. The music is a complex non-beat piece with delicate tune held within it's crystaline carapace. Perhaps the closest piece here to regular New Age music, it is pastel & prettiness. "Starswarm" by TIM STEBBING has mood & depth, growing like the incidental music to "Blade Runner" mixed down to a more passive, beauteous feeling. It moves in slow motion where even the ground mist is of filigree silver lace. Relaxing, pacifying, ideal music to drowse off to while being listenabe with hidden depth. "The Voyage" by TONY GUNNING is even more delicate, fading in from the depths of golden infinity with a music which could heal mortal wounds & caress erogenous zones if played at volume. It is almost industrial in that it lacks any kind of edge & seems almost like staring at a complex microcosm through a large, powerful magnifying glass, it's curved surface giving away the fact that the beauty you see is in fact microscopic. "Skorpio Rising" by SYSTEM 55 closes the album with a more together piece - full forward where the others had been mixed almost into the aether. It has moments of pure wonderment in both sound & composition which sell me on their sound - a very distinctive theme which might even be used as soundtrack one day - you never know!|Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.