barriers
~Barriers is another in a long line of excellent Nightcrawlers releases. This double cassette comes packaged in a unique double sized hard plastic case, something I've never seen before. It allows for larger Jon Alderfer cover art but the size makes it difficult to store. The Nightcrawlers (Peter Gulch, Tom Gulch and Dave Lunt) recorded Barriers from February to June 1991. Where their previous music took inspiration from Tangerine Dream, "Lazarus", "Voices of Ether", "Random Chances", "Rapid Rover", "Barriers", "Feathery Dusk", "Strange Attractors" and "Broken Symetry" all pay homage to Klaus Schulze's recent efforts without being monotonous. Each track is relatively short (5 to 14 minutes in length). It isn't until we get to "Parallel Worlds" that The Nightcrawlers break a new barrier. Here we have a definitive non - Tangerine Dream, non - Klaus Schulze inspired upbeat piece that even has a melody! Did I detect a similarity to that late 70's band Earthstar? The remaining tracks ("Twisted Spaces", "Collapsing Waves", and "Electro Evolution") are minimalist, abstract electronic excursions that evolve into "classical" teutonic EM. Barriers is a cassette album that will certainly please all fans of cosmic electronic music.
Henry Schneider -- I/E Winter 1992 |