Fanger & Kersten
Interkosmos
An angelic vocal sigh and vocoded introduction combine with a gob smacking sequence to make the opening title track a real beaut. This is the best Fanger and Kersten collaboration I have heard by a long way. The cover is also rather fun looking like a piss take of a Cosmic Jokers album (though the music is nothing like it). When it arrives the rhythm is a real driving one. The sort that would get your foot right down to the floor. What’s more the lead line is also spot on. A delicate plucked melody starts ‘New Times (betazoid woman mix)’. A rapid rumbling sequence combines with sonic splashes to create a tranquil mood until the sequence is beefed up half way through. A playful melody then becomes the main feature.

Calm descends and we float into ‘Deep Sleep’ The sequence sounds as if it is a helicopter getting closer and closer. Very faint voices can be heard and soft lead motifs dance amongst the rotor blades. A beat ‘with attitude’ enters at the three and a half minute mark. It is a really dirty one that becomes more and more insistent. This is a cracker though the title is rather misleading.

‘Nightshift’ continues straight on without a break but things are stripped down to whispered voices allowing the new track to emerge from around them. A swirling Spyra type sequence becomes the main focus. The whole effect is rather psychedelic and ‘way out, man’. Mesmerizing stuff. Things fade away and we float into the twenty three minute ‘Searched’ which adopts another swirling sequence but this time a bit like something Pete Namlook might come up with. A melodic sequence is layered over the first. This track is also rather psychedelic, listen to it after a can of Tennants Super and the mind creates all sorts of weird and wonderful pictures (did with me anyway).

‘Black Hole’ finishes the album off with a sequencer blast combined with an infectious rhythm. Around the half way mark we get a more delicate section though still rhythmic but we are back to a pump up the volume section a couple of minutes from the end.

To sum up this will be liked by fans of Spyra and the good fax label stuff. It is not a retro album but I think some fans of that scene will also find this very enjoyable. (DL)

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