KILLED in CARS

Chris Carter - The Space Between (Industrial Records, 1980)

January has always been my least favourite month of the year. It is associated with exams and I lose the will to live when I study under pressure. Everything gets worse: my sleeping pattern reaches the brink of nocturnality, my level of concentration deteriorates and my diet becomes rich in sugar to keep me awake. The starts to 2010, 2011 and 2012 have been rather dire for me, solely because of the studying I have to do. On the way home from college, I was in a relatively dark mood due to suffering in a modern history examination. Such a dark mood can only ever be associated with dark music. This calls for a listen to a couple of Throbbing Gristle albums.

Once Heathen Earth had (unfortunately) come to a close, I scanned the liner notes. Chris Carter. A name that suddenly reminded me of how much of a fan I am of the synthesisers used in Throbbing Gristle’s releases. Secondly, it also reminded me that I had a release of his lurking somewhere in the vast depths of .mp3 files that is my external hard drive. The Space Between.

I ogle at the cover. Such a sharp black-and-white photograph reminds me of Whitehouse and other power electronics acts, thus suggesting to me that this wasn’t going to be the easiest listen of my life. I press play; after thirty-five seconds or so I migrate back to the media player window to check that I was listening to The Space Between, and not a Suicide-spin-off-esque minimal synth project. It was certainly Chris Carter playing. Any human being that has given Throbbing Gristle a thorough listen would imagine that anything released in Chris Carter’s solo career would be at least slightly reminiscent of the industrial pioneers’ murky, dark music. But it’s not. The Space Between consists of entirely synthesisers - and rightly so.

The album is certainly a very decent effort. Evidently breaking away from Throbbing Gristle’s sound, Carter has written fifteen pieces for synthesiser. And it is certainly enjoyable. For instance, ‘Electrodub 2’ is reminiscent of Public Image Ltd., on the condition that all of the members had been traded for a Roland and Jah Wobble had been replaced by Iron Man. I would personally consider it more minimal as well - probably more minimal than even Suicide. There are even less sounds occurring in the entire duration of The Space Between, aside from another synthesiser here and there. You can easily focus on the “bass” melody and the drum machine repeating itself for eternity. And that, in itself, is ideal for such a release. Why complicate such enjoyable melodies when it already sounds enjoyable enough?

In summarisation, I am overly pleased with Carter’s debut album; I am also certainly glad that it only sounds slightly similar to his band’s work, otherwise I may have found it a large chore to listen to in its entirety. It is both recommended highly and acclaimed by myself.