Before Astral Engineering's album 'Chronoglide' got picked up by Ambient Soho's Worm Interface label and became their first CD release in 1994, Brighton-based producer Simon Rees had distributed that album on cassette. It became a well-regarded ambient dub album that captured the atmosphere of many chill-out rooms of the time and remains something of an enduring classic.
However, previous to this Simon had released another less well-known cassette album called 'Network Space' and it is this that we have here. No track names are given on the artwork and no date of release (probably 1992 or 1993) so details are sketchy, but the music is outstanding and fans of the later CD will certainly not be disappointed.
Ripped @320kbps from an original cassette as two side-long tracks
Download it HERE
--- February 2012 UPDATE ---
Simon Rees has been in touch to let me know that there is now an Astral Engineering Bandcamp page from where you can download a digital remaster of 'Network Space' as well as pages where you can download 'Chronoglide' and 'Music for Insomniacs', the last of which was never released in full.
Please visit -
http://astralengineering.bandcamp.com/
http://astralengineering.bandcamp.com/
Hi Gobbledygook
ReplyDeleteI thought you'd like to know that your blog post has helped inspire me to upload my old Astral Angineering stuff to Bandcamp. There is a digital remaster of Network Space (still no track names though :-), Chronoglide and Music for Insomniacs, which was never released in full.
All at:
http://astralengineering.bandcamp.com/
Enjoy. Thanks for the kind words about my first release!
Simon
Thanks very much for your news Simon, and for your info re: the Bandcamp downloads.
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy to have triggered the interest that the tape rips have provoked and which has led to the shared appreciation of the brilliant music which I and many others have enjoyed for all these years. The feedback makes it all worthwhile. Cheers!