NARROW LANE

This Dutch electronic group is simply one of my great new discoveries, yet they've been around seemingly forever (since the 1990s, but it's now 2013). I know Holland has never had a big electronic scene, I am aware of Peru, that's about it. Narrow Lane is yet another live offering, the first part recorded the National Space Centre in Leicester, and the second part at Hampshire Jam 6, in Liphook. This Dutch group seems to hang around the same UK venues that Radio Massacre International does. In fact I like to think of FSP as the Dutch equivalent of RMI, only I think FSP's music often rivals that of RMI. FSP often uses modular equipment, like the Arrick modular synth, which is a modular synth based off the Moog. Arrick is based out of Texas, so the synth is American made. They also use vintage gear like the EMS Synthi A, Elka Rhapsody, and Solina String Ensemble, but the Mellotron is sampled, using the Yamaha A3000. FSP is always the vehicle for Marcel Engels, but he gets help here from Ruud Heij, and for the first part (recorded in 2006), Frank van der Wel. Unfortunately v.d. Wel had left shortly after that performance, so the second part, recorded late in 2007, was without his presence. Regardless, this stuff is right up your alley if you enjoy Rubycon/Ricochet-era Tangerine Dream, even these guys use many of the same synth timbres. It can be said that this might not bring nothing new to the table, but I don't care because this stuff really blew me away! If they done something very much like what a certain well-known electronic group had done some thirty or so years earlier, and do it well and do it convincingly, I have nothing to complain about. It's strange how many other countries are taking up to the Berlin School of electronic music. In the '70s you had Anna Sjalv Tredje in Sweden and even Zanov in France (Jean Michel Jarre might have been influenced by it, but of course, his style isn't Berlin School), and now you have Radio Massacre International, Airsculpture, and Red Shift in the UK, as well as FSP in Holland. This comes highly recommended to fans of this style of electronic music!