Altres — Tripping The Dark Fantastic....

Altres are an Scottish based synthesizer band who utilize some guitar elements to build atmospheric & filmatic electronic music which has soniic references to the likes of later day Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, less spacey elements of Ozric Tentacles and general more buoyant & dramatic 80’s sounding synthesizers music with guitar textures.

The band originally got together way back in 1983, did some live shows, released a few tapes then decided to call it a day in 1985. Then in 2006 four of the original line-up decided to regroup & bring the Altres name back into existence once again. This two disc CDR collection brings together a selection of their work; from the 1983 to 1986 on disc one & on disc two we have a selection of tracks from 2003 to 2006. Disc one offers up seven tracks in all that last between just over a minute to the thirteen minute mark. The tracks go from the opening bobbing, weaving & slightly oriental sounding  bright synth pulsing elctroinca of ‘Golden Country’. Onto  the rather badly dated early techno drum machine, hacking rock guitar & synth runs of  ‘Snakebridge’. Through to the surprising noisy & seared sci-fi electronic boils & synthesizer screams of ‘Wreck’. The disc goes from enjoyable, buoyant & atmospheric 80’s synth matter, to rather badly dated, ham fistedly produced & uninspired guitar solo swamped electrionca. So it's a little bit of a mixed bag quality wise.

Disc two sounds a lot more professionally produced & blanced  with the twin guitar elements been more subtle, blanced & atmosphere enhancing; instead of  been overbearing & bland soloing weaved as  on a few tracks on the first disc. Thankful too there’s also none of the badly dated drum machine textures either & as a whole the discs tracks are more dramatic & memorable too. With the band vary their pace more too; with a more lite prog type feeling coming to bare on a few tracks along with more experimental textured synth & guitar drifts too. Sure there are a few misfires here, but on the whole the quality is very good both sonically, dramatically & harmonically.

‘Tripping The Dark Fantastic…’ is a rewarding yet sometimes quality mixed look back at the career of this relatively unknown synthesizer based band who really do deserver more notice & appreciation. So if you enjoy dramatic 80’s  synth  music with guitar textures & atmopsheres this is well worth tracking down. To find out more, hear samples & order direct drop into the bands site here.