SPIRAL

Spiral is Vangelis in a futuristic mode, without the underlying nostalgia that characterised his cyberpunk soundtrack to Blade Runner. Tackling the likes of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze on their own territory, Vangelis creates a finely sequenced and excellently produced synthesiser album here, and whilst he doesn't quite hit the high standards they attained so often during this time period he comes maddeningly close at points. A good enough album, although at points it does begin to sound like Vangelis just enjoying having access to all these cool synths and keyboards; whilst technically accomplished, it lacks emotional or compositional depth and therefore struggles to hold my interest.