Station Identification – Inner Space (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

You can’t really take this one short, understated track on its own and grasp the concept behind it. For a start, it is only a brief snapshot of a bigger concept. But also, it is just one small repetitive refrain in a larger ambient magnum opus. For it to be the focal point, it would be to look at a drop of water and try to understand the movements of the ocean. But it gives us a perfect place to start, and for all that I have just said above, it is representative of the overall project.

The artist behind it admits that the LP from which Station Identification is taken is meant to be listened to from start to finish, as a whole, just as albums were intended in the classic heyday of the Vinayl 12-inch. Perhaps, like any single worth its salt, Station Identification is merely chosen to teas and entice the listener into venturing further into this ambient and atmospheric electronic landscape.

Inspired by and sonically infused with memories of watching TV in the late seventies and early eighties, the whole piece only reveals itself when you join the various video streams and submerse yourself in its seductive soundscapes.

There are longer pieces, such as Morning Program, which fizzes with electronic energy, and electronic salvos, which shimmer and chime over digital washes’ gentle ebb and flow. There are also more beat-driven soundtracks, such as Dinner Time Viewing, which hangs in the air like a chill room track in a nightclub of the not-to-distant future.

And by the time you get to the low hum of Signing Off, you realise you have just been taken through a whole day’s TV experience. The tracks not so much reflect the programming itself but more rising and falling sonically to match the mood and momentum of the TV schedules of a bygone era.

In an age when TV is on demand and at the touch of a button, you can’t imagine anyone being able to make a concept album and tribute like this today. But for those of us who remember the good old days, following the peaks and troughs, and seeing the shape of the Televisual experience sketched out as a soundtrack, it is a wonderfully brilliant and not to mention nostalgic journey indeed.

Full video channel – HERE