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review by Bill Binkelman Michael Shipway and Steve Smith (a.k.a. Volt) state in the liner notes to Star Compass "Have you ever done something spontaneous like jumping in a car and driving to wherever the road takes you...This was our approach to "Star Compass" where we literally only packed a few sequences in our machines and set off on a trip to wherever it took us..." After hearing this album, I'm gonna let these two be my travel guides the next vacation I take! Star Compass is an excellent and exciting excursion (via four tracks, two in the ten-minute and two in the twenty minute range) into long form Berlin school music that wends its way slowly and deliberately, but always engagingly to "wherever it takes you." The song titles have overt astronomical or SF themes, and while there is an element of spacemusic to certain passages on some songs, this is unabashed Germanic retro EM, and boy does it cook. Unlike fellow Groove label stablemate Gert Emmens, Shipway and Smith don't tend to shift their songs' gears in mid-track. The evolution of a song, such as the opening "Escape Velocity" tends to be more linear (whereas Emmens tends to work vertically). The initial sequence on "Escape Velocity" hums and beats along contentedly while the assorted solos unfurl, bob, and weave around it. I suppose some might find this kind of music lacking in development. I can't say this music excites the senses the way, e.g. Waves of Dreams, does, but it's immensely entertaining and I'll bet it makes the miles disappear effortlessly when played while cruising down the highway. The two long tracks are sandwiched in the middle between the shorter ones. "Hyperspace Drift" opens in a spacy vein with swirling synths of assorted sounds and textures floating through the inky black of space. If you're a sequence-phile, be forewarned this song takes its sweet time transitioning to a pulsing and dramatic Berlin school cut, but it does get there. Sequences are layered on, set against some whirling keyboards, percolating and bubbling away. The song really picks up steam as it enters the ten-minute mark, with lush mellotrons flowing under the lively sequence. The title track has "chapters," if you will: "First," "Second" and "Third" direction, although there is only the one time cue. It also starts out with washes of keyboards, this time more melodic and closer to classic spacemusic in sound. When the rapid tempo bass beats jump into the fray, I sure do wish I was behind the wheel of Datsun Z or a Audi A6. "First Contact," which closes the album, is arguably the weakest track, being the least like the others and also being preoccupied with being alien-ish and the most spacy. It's not bad by any means, just lackluster compared to the first three cuts. Lots of relatively abstract synth rumblings and effects dominate the early going, but twinkling bell tones bring a welcome air of warmth and musicality to the proceedings. Rhythmic elements do come into play later, but they are more subdued than on previous selections, almost sounding contemporary and vaguely "glitchy" which makes for an interesting juxtaposition with undulating mellotrons carrying the lead melodic component to the track. Nonetheless, Star Compass is a great CD. After all, if you don't count the last song, you still get way over fifty minutes of primo Berlin/retro EM. Shipway and Smith crafted some superb improvisational music on this album and I have no problem recommending it to fans of the genre. |
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