Surface 10 Borrowed Time 2000 Play: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi   Download: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'On That Day Forever')

Surface10, (aka Dean De Benedictis) has moved on from his previous ethno/ambient release 'A Lone Reply'of some three years ago and now presents us with 'Borrowed Time 2000'. Repeated plays reveal an album that promises something for everyone, deep space synth rock, ambient, abstract and commercial tastes all being catered for. We're certainly heading off the ambient trail and steering straight for the SMD CD buying crowd. So let's give it a run through.

Track one, 'Welcome to the Fading' opens up with the mandatory synth drones required of a space rock piece like this. Initially sounds like a WWII bomber powering up in the room next door!! An arpeggiation then arrives which is spot on and for the next five minutes l'm lost in space. It fades all too soon leading into a more disjointed set of pad sounds for the latter part of the track with incessant random percussion tapping away which really isn't needed, the track would stand up well enough without this. There is a theme screaming to jump out at you but it's not a gain Dean capitalises on, shame.

'And so these sounds triggered the dream again', that's one hell of a title….l think? Not much development during this melancholy piece, its more like a passage from one of TD's mid eighties soundtracks,( Near Dark springs to mind with the synth string patches used). What makes the track work brilliantly is the use of a filtered synth sound as percussion throughout. Probably the highlight of the album, l love those strings, you will too. Track three,'137 found (Elandra)'. A change of mood and we're into that dangerous realm of what's known as electronic ambient jazz! Experimental, cyclical and pitted with odd samples, it's all these things and more. It will hold some folks attention but for many it's gonna be skip to next track, 'The preternatural heart'. This is the first obviously commercial piece on the album and frustrating to hear it is too. It's got everything you could want from this sort of upbeat track, which incidentally would sit quite happily in amongst the Glimmer Room's Tomorrows Tuesday album tracks or any of T- Bass's material. The problem is it plays at completely the wrong tempo, it's a track that needs to be running at 120bpm not 72bpm, so disappointing, greatness evades this one.

We move on to 'sources'. The atmospherics are grand and great but no real development here again which makes it seem a little odd and out of place after the previous commercial number. 'Template Ocean' see's us right back on track with a big string synth lament fronted by an OTT synth lead solo.' Ion Strays' different again, Dean still hasn't decided where this album is heading. Again a brand of commercial track with a hip-hop rhythm running throughout, nice brooding strings in the background and another Glimmer Roomesque theme keeps things interesting.

'When you…..find the time' is a more sedate affair and another frustrating one in that anyone that listens to it is going to be thinking, l wish he'd used a Mellotron flute sound to do the track. The flute lead used doesn't do the piece on real favours which is genuinely a pity. 'Where we swam' made me think of one of the link tracks from Mark Shreeve's Nocturne album, can't remember which track though!

'On that day forever' brings events to a close. It's another commercial piece with some adventurous use of synth sounds. It's akin to a track from the Glimmer Room again and feeling out of place on this album.