The Langham Research Centre brings together Felix Carey, Iain Chambers, Philip Tagney & Robert Worby. The project started in 2003 with the sole purpose of using a studio as their instrument- but an older more 'classic' studio with microphones, tape machines & various vintage analog devices.  Tape Works Vol 1 brings together eleven tracks and forty-one minutes of play time, and it really is a varied & often surprising ride- going from atmospheric radiophonic workouts, onto playful & at times fairly cryptic tape scaping, through lo-fi avant-electro adventures, and pared-back piano & field recording blends. All but one track nudges over the ten-minute mark, so the four-piece never get indulgent or overstretch ideas.

The album opens with “Perpetual Motion”- this is four minutes worth of accelerating & choppy retro electro atmosphere-  that comes off like the soundtrack to some surreal & intense moment in a 1970’s/ early 80’s sci-fi series.  Track four is entitled “Doors”- as its title suggests,  this just over the two-minute track is based around the sound of door creaks- and to begin with it's moodily  eerily & cryptic, before coming quite musical & playful.  “Sink Speeds”- brings together four minutes of rapidly chopped-up retro radio ads, what sounds like airliner pilot chatter, electro whizzes, bent & wavering operatic voices, bird songs, & weird saws etc.

At times the album reminds me of either  NWW or P16.D4, when the projects where more vitalize & concise. At others like some bizarre & rouge recording made late night by the radiophonic workshops. And at others  kinetic & jittering modern composition, played with analog equipment. The album nods to past, yet also feels like it ’s in added some new & knowingly modern to the mix-  as the mood, at times rapidly, shifts from sinister, to playful, onto cryptic & puzzling.

From the very first playthrough, Tape Works Vol. 1 grabbed my attention and pulled me in. And since I’ve revisited the release again & again- still finding new surprises, sly detail, and fresh sonic puzzles with-in the work. Let's hope they be a Vol 2 along fairly soon.