Inspired by a recent blog from the gents in our Reading branch, featuring a few of the team’s favourite demonstration pieces of music, here goes with the first of an occasional series in which I will attempt to enthuse about a few of my favourite musical things that your hi-fi system will definitely thank you for playing! This may sound a tad self-indulgent (and indeed it is), but bear with me. You might even enjoy the ride!

Monolith

The first object of audio desire is “Spheres” by Delerium. The brainchild of Front Line Assembly guys Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, this album is very firmly electronic (fans of classical music only can stop reading now, but the next article in this series will have something very special for you, so see you then).

Released in 1994, “Spheres” first came my way when I was sent it totally free of charge on the proviso that I would write a review of it for a weird electronic music fanzine thing that I was implicated in at the time. I always used to receive these things with some degree of trepidation. What if it was crap and I hated it? What if it turned out to be one of those godawful demo albums, the likes of which had sent me to sleep at many a hi-fi show?

Transmitter

My concern proved to be misplaced. “Spheres” is totally wonderful and I think was cruelly overlooked at the time, when the trendy electronic albums seemed to be “Violator” by Depeche Mode, “Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld” by The Orb, “Blue Lines” by Massive Attack, “Baby” by Yello or “Selected Ambient Works 85–92” by Aphex Twin, all of which are great and, to a certain degree, will provide your hi-fi system with some wonderful sounds.

Wavelength

At the time of its release, “Spheres” was (and still is) both retro and futuristic. Trippy and frighteningly unearthly samples of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” provide the vocal on the first track, “Monolith”.

None of the original album’s six tracks clocks in at less than six and a half minutes, with “Transmitter” and “Wavelength” both coming in at a smidge over thirteen minutes, while the star of the whole album, “Colony”, runs for a modest twelve minutes!

Booklet Artwork: false-colour ultraviolet image of eary stage cell division

Colony

The whole album is an aural assault course to put your loudspeakers through their paces, but in particular I tend to go to “Colony”. This track will test both the bass extension and definition, and your system’s ability to throw out that elusive double whammy of a wide and deep three-dimensional stereo image.

After the spooked-out ambience at the beginning of the track, a definite homage to that Berlin School, Tangerine Dream-style sequencer riffing begins to evolve, but it is taken to a much higher level. When the choral vocal sample (borrowed from Vangelis’ “Hispanola”) is dropped into the mix, the track achieves warp speed and hurls the listener into outer/inner space. The effect should be that, when you close your eyes, you no longer have the faintest clue as to where your speakers have disappeared to!

Booklet Artwork: false-colour satellite rendering of a hurricane

Dark Matter

There is more than a vague nod to Brian Eno here as well, especially in the more ambient passages. The industrial heritage of Front Line Assembly adds that extra layer of dark spookiness that makes this album truly unique… indeed, Delerium themselves never bettered it, with their later efforts becoming a tad more song-orientated.

Booklet Artwork: microscopic cross-section of biological tissue stain

I don’t think that many albums anywhere have the disorientating effect that “Spheres” creates. Your hi-fi system should make it sound at once powerful and majestic, but simultaneously detailed and controlled, as it unravels the dark, twisted waves of euphoria unleashed here.

Booklet Artwork: false -colour contour map of comet nucleus

Cloud Barrier

It would appear that “Spheres” is still easy to buy on CD or double white vinyl (nice), and is easy to stream too. Anyone out there in blogland with an interest in electronic music who also happens to have a great hi-fi system should give it a try.

Try a little Delerium and bask in some creative musical madness. The artwork on the multi-panel CD insert is great too, adding a certain extra aura to this cosmic/industrial/sci-fi power trip. Turn the volume up (if you dare) and see those drive units move!

Essential Blog Writing Supplies: i couldn’t have done it without…

Re-entry

So there you have it: just over an hour of electronic deep-space exploration without once having to leave the armchair, unless “Colony” has already shaken you out of it. If your system can keep the whole thing vast, ominous and properly under control, it is probably doing something right.

If it turns this interstellar epic into a grey fog stranded between the loudspeakers, perhaps a visit to your local Audio T is in order. Bring the album and an open mind. We’ll supply the hi-fi, the volume control and, if required, a safe route back to Earth.

Many thanks for reading.

Andy - Audio T Cheltenham

If you’ve enjoyed this, why not read some more of our other blogs, and be sure to follow us on our social media channels below…