Foreign Spaces Spheres Play: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi   Download: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Spherical Dream 1984')

What we have here is a retrospective compilation of tracks recorded between 1984 to 1989, taken from what l would assume to be original multi-track tape recordings, ( as with another FS release 'Imagination-Pictures-Music' from roughly the same era). That being the case, the tracks have been cleaned up very well indeed for the CD's production. The collection comprises a number of early versions of tracks which have since appeared on later albums, so this should be somewhat of a curio for some of you synth music fans out there!

Proceedings get under way with 'Spherical Dream 1984' sounding very much like TD's 'White Eagle' given the sequencing and voicings chosen, before veering off into anthemic mode delivering the sort of energy and mood of Shreeve's classic 'Assassin'. A very impressive introduction.

Think TD's Melrose album with 'Voyager 2', the sound palette and phrasing used are identical to those used on 'Three Bikes in the Sky',( which raises a certain point of contention given that Melrose wouldn't actually start being recorded for at least another six months!!). Maybe this compilation was completed in 90'/91', not 89'?? Not a bad little track though.

'In my Head' features on their other compilation under the title, 'In your Head'. At just four minutes duration I guess it's a track that they really had to work at, featuring some seriously convincing Froesian guitar plank spanking. 'Funky Trailer' is pretty self explanatory. It does sound like TV trailer music, time to move swiftly on.

Play me the next three short tracks, 'Luna III', 'Streaming' and 'Autumn Leaves' and l'd swear l was listening to the early cassette releases of Ash Prema! Intentional or not, the likeness is uncanny. Maybe it's just the same sort of synths being used, (and also given the fact that this music and Ash's work would have been recorded in the late eighties at about the same time) but the way in which it's played…

'Random Stars' is next on the playlist and again l'm gonna name-drop as this one sounds like a clone of early 'Vietgrove'. Maybe it's the digital synth's being used, but the real joy in this three minuter comes at the end when all of a sudden we get a slice of music that really could have come straight off TD's 'Heartbreakers' soundtrack, ending way, way too soon.

'Green Monday', and we're back in Vietgrove mode again with a hint of 'Cloudburst Flight' thrown in for good measure given the way that things are being played. 'Catch the Clouds' is the last four minuter of the ten uptempo studio pieces presented here.

Now finally we are treated to nearly 36 minutes of live work recorded twenty years ago!!! 'The Chieming Project' as the set is entitled was recorded back in November 1984. It displays Foreign Spaces flare for variety in their compositions, moving from section to section sounding as if they're about to break into Stratosphere at one point before doing a bit of new age twiddling followed by synthy prog-rock,( only this time sounding just like Eddie Jobson!!), before finally closing with the CDs opener 'Spherical Dream ' again. Even the odd vocal creeps in, but given the fact that this appears to be a tight set of about 7 structured pieces l think it all works well enough. Entertaining, it certainly is, and the audience agrees.

Foreign Spaces on this CD display a chameleon like talent for sounding like other artistes named both sonically and stylistically. If this is intentional it is done so very well and l applaud that, however l think that the truth is perhaps a little more down to earth in that they just so happened to be in the process of searching for a sound of their own just stumbling across these similarities capitalising on them.