Create
Space Time Continuum
CD / 5 Tracks / 61.27 mins
Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband
Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb
(Excerpt from track(s) 'Cryogenics')
This is the album by Create I have been hoping for ever since I heard the demo to his first album. To me the CD marks something of a coming of age, his very best album so far. Deep, windy, swirling vortex sounds abound at the beginning of the title track. We get a sample of the computer from '2001 A Space Odyssey' telling Dave that all is fine. Softer silken pads make a fleeting entrance then the vortex returns. Another sample from the computer gives things a darker twist before returning to soothing drones and ethereal wordless choral effects. A slow high register sequence emerges. A heavyish rhythm nicely fits alongside the pulsations. Lead lines of varying intensity, some flutey whilst others laser sharp, are released one by one. A further melodic sequence joins the party. An impressive feature of the track is some lovely use of mellotron. Indeed this can be said of much of the album.

'Ghost in the Machine' has a very weird but extremely effective sound at the beginning. It is almost as if it is speech but so distorted as to turn it into unintelligible crackling static. Are we hearing someone trying to communicate with us or is it just our imagination? A soft contrasting melody floats through it all. It's an excellent opening section which gets even better with the introduction of more 'tron' and soft pads adding just a touch of melancholy. A slow deep rhythm and percussion line take things gently forward. 'Cryogenics' begins with a lonesome flute and yet more mellotron. It's all rather moody but also beautiful stuff. A slow pulse gives a little structure whilst sedate sequence starts to form. A rapid sequence is deployed increasing the excitement levels. More sequencer lines seem to be coming all the time and as the note count per second increases so does the pleasure level. An excellent track.

Well if you still haven't had enough tron, yet more gets 'Footprint in the Sand' underway. A slow five-note sequence emerges from the lovely dreamy atmosphere. Things continue to build in classic Berlin School fashion as a second sequence joins the first, morphing nicely. 'Fading Lights Grow Brighter' is appropriately all rather shimmering until ethereal mellotron arrives. We then get a really effective, extremely bass heavy, melodic motif that provides just the right darker contrast. A sequence does arrive but it's rather subtle, fitting in with the mood of the rest of the track. Overall though I did think that the track was a bit plodding. The rest of the album was much better, the first track especially being a real belter! (DL)

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