“Inside Out is maybe what has answered the most to those fans in need of Tangerine Dream's fragrances of the 70's up to the mid 80's”
1 Light Sky 5:47 2 Speed of Life 8:50 3 Nightmare 6:38 4 Atmosdepth VII 7:00 5 Mellow 4:59 6 B-10 3:39 7 Sun 10:42 8 Dolphin's Cry 9:51 9 Lost Dreams 3:13 10 Trace 6:11 Spheric Music SMCD 1001
(CD 67:20) (V.F.) (Solid E-Rock)
Here is the most selling album of Spheric Music. And after a complete listening we understand why. Released initially in 1991, Spheric Music reedits INSIDE OUT in 2009. It's a collection of 10 titles where E-Rock is king! Except for some movements of sequencer, you won't find no complex titles here. It's an album custom-made for those who were attracted by the electronic rock of the MIDI years. Of these years when the digital synthesizer supplanted the warmth of the analog synths with rhythms and harmonies easily creatable by the means of these new technologies. The result is an album of solid E-Rock that the boss of Spheric Music decorates of good effects and of nice harmonies whistled by a synth which is often as much catchy to the ears than those solid sequencing patterns. So, talk about rhythms? They are great and sculpted on a good meshing of sequencer's patterns which gallop and crisscross in parallel lines on the grapeshots of good electronic percussions. Lambert Ringlage goes here of a dexterity that will recall to several these sonic surprises that Chris Franke has multiplied when Tangerine Dream left its Pink Years' era for that of Virgin's.
Light Sky starts things up on a light note. A good rhythmic part with a sequencer in mode spasmodic pulsations and percussions of a Bongo genre which support a nice melodious approach broken by series of orchestral layers and which stops quite abruptly. I think it's a very accessible opening with a hyper melodious synth which scatter its airs pleasantly in the ears among ethereal voices. A nervous title, Speed of Life is a good electronic rock built on an agile sequencer in mode Franke. It's a pretty solid E-Rock which breathes by this very convulsive approach of Silver Scale but with more synth solos, sharp and twisted, which roll in loops with this dexterity that Lambert Ringlage had accustomed to us with ['ramp] and Hypnosphere. The dramatic effects of the synth layers/riffs are also very present. Nightmare proposes a galloping structure with a bit of worry in an ambiosonic shroud that is rather representative of its title. The opening is lugubrious with arpeggios which waddle, such as a satanic bed song, in a fog of cemetery where a false guitar bites our ears with sharpened solos. The music evolves in a funeral ambience with its nightmarish shade which glides over a movement of a sequencer nervous and convulsive, such as a herd of terrified keys, with effects of chorus subtly luciferian. This is good EM with a tint of the movie music from Tangerine Dream and the universe of Mark Shreeve. The same goes for the strong Atmosdepth VII which seems to get out straight from the Near Dark soundtrack. The introduction is disturbing with its glaucous ambience and its effects which plunge us between the Flashpoint and Poland eras. The rhythm is settling after the 60 seconds. The movement of the sequencer is hopping in a rather minimalist corridor with a suite of keys which keenly oscillate, as long as the impression to tumble is tangible between our ears, in a mosaic of rhythm where the disorder is next to a fascinating symmetry. Elements and influences of Peter Baumann in Trans Harmonic Nights can also be heard here. Moreover, Lambert injects here a panoply of effects, like these very harmonious riffs of Ricochet 1, which make the listener travelling between the analog era and that more digital of the Dream. I think it's a very good title intended for those who would have wanted that the Berlin trio explores a little more these avenues sponsored by the charms of acid or LSD of the 70's.
Mellow is a slow and nice melody with a guitar which unwinds good solos on a bed of fragile arpeggios and their glass tints. It's a good electronic slow dance with a vicious guitar which reminds the music theme of Tangerine Dream, also that of Top Gun, but not as much as B-10 and its fiery rock anthem which gets closer to the generation of Streethawk. We note the presence of the guitarist Carsten Gayer here. Sun is as complex as Atmosdepth VII but with a more stylized approach. Lambert presents us a more personal creation which represents a little less the TD perfumes with good movements of the sequencer which structures polyphased rhythms loaded with effects of mist and where roam good synth solos, as usual, which inject effects of violins and their airs merging with additional keyboards keys. The sequencer is simply delicious here! Bouncing sequences emerge from the vaporous intro of Dolphin Cry's. The sequencer goes in mode catch me if you can with a lively and fluid structure which sweeps these horizons of perdition that have rocked an introduction filled by mysteries. More audacious than Atmosdepth VII and Sun, Dolphin Cry's evolves between ease and complexity with elements which make jumps in another these structures which arises from Silver Scale or from Digital Times. Two titles that have excited those legion of TD fans at the beginning of the 80's. Great! It's doubtless the best moment of INSIDE OUT. Lost Dreams is a nice slow dance, more in mode blues than Mellow, with a guitar which cries for its harmonies and for its heart-rending solos. By the way, The guitar effects are numerous here and they stroll with nostalgia in Trace which ends this album with a structure of more ambient rhythm. The sequencer seems to make cry its keys which skip like in a devilish lullaby which has lost its luster of fear. Even the multiple and brief effects of grapeshot from the percussions are incapable to get Trace out of its cocoon of morphic hypnosis which rolls and rolls with a taste of Underwater Sunlight.
We understand a little better now why INSIDE OUT became the emblem of Spheric Music. With its wide pallet of inspirations which travels from Ricochet to long after the Blue Years, this Lambert's album is a treasure for the fans of Tangerine Dream. And one should not conclude as far as Lambert Ringlage is lacking originality. Quite the opposite! He exploits marvellously the pond of his influences while structuring rhythmic crossroads which are fine beyond those of Chris Franke. He has too this vision and the agility on synthesizer that he works with a very good dexterity, as much as in the harmonies than in the solos. And when the sequencer and the synthesizer abound in bright ideas, we are in the mouth of EM!
Sylvain Lupari (March 11th, 2017) *****
Available at Spheric Music and CD Baby