The Time And Space Machine – The Way Out Sound From In (2014)

Just before my recent holiday, I took a visit to the local Saturday Boot Fair in Holcot, and stumbled over a nice bloke selling loads and loads of CDs for £1 each, or 3 for £2, and it was quite a profitable haul, as readers will see over the next few reviews.

This was a CD I knew nothing about, but thought from the cover it might be a bit 'spacerock', certainly worth a quid.

Finding out what it actually is proved a bit of a puzzle, but I eventually discovered that it's a compilation album curated and tracks remixed by Richard Norris, producer, engineer and founder member of The Grid - so as you might expect, it's mostly instrumental, quite rocky and dreamy, with a dance beat throughout, despite the variety of artists.

It's a decent listen, eight tracks, all very much in the dance style of The Grid. Standouts are Warpaint's Disco/Very, heavy bass, echoey guitar and vocals reminiscent of Swedish band Goat; Temples' Mesmerize, a Tame Impala soundalike; The Sufis' 1960s psychedelic Sri Sai Flora, very Sgt Pepper and Sid era Pink Floyd, and A Mountain Of One's Ride, a powerful beat song.

While nothing here feels amazing, everything is worth a listen, you probably need to much more an aficionado of dance music than me to fully enjoy it.

Link to album tracks

3* - a decent slice of ambient dance for a summer's afternoon