Time. Space. Repeat. is the one man recording project of Southampton, UK. musician Angus Reid. The general vibe is one of blissed-out post rock and shoegaze with an optimistic leaning with layer upon layer of guitars, washed with synth pads and the occasional bell, zither, piano and assorted other instruments.
Angus shares some of his favorite songs in this weeks edition of “Five For Friday” but first check out his brilliant new record “Colliderscope” below.
Regular Fries – Dream Lottery
I first heard this track on an NME cover CD and it just instantly captured my imagination with the delayed electric piano and otherworldly atmosphere. As the song progresses and the bassline, whispered vocals, reverse-reverb-laden guitars and wailing saxophone all kick in, it builds to a heady crescendo of swirling noise that you could live inside for a week. An absolute psychedelic brain-rush – I think this track was a portal into something I’d never heard before and it remains a key TSR influence to this day.
Jon Hopkins – Feel First Life
Just extraordinary. A simple piano line that gradually unfurls, bit by bit, into something that tells an epic, emotionally engaging story without a single word being uttered. In a world where musicians are constantly told to get people’s attention in the first thirty seconds, Jon Hopkins takes his time, allowing the choir to gradually seep into the mix. By the time you realise they are there, the piano has long since disappeared. An absolute masterclass in restraint, atmosphere, suspense and resolution – Jon Hopkins has created something truly beautiful here.
Ólafur Arnalds – Near Light
It’s hard to gauge the biggest influence on my piano playing, whether it’s the emotive power of Chopin or the dream-like harmonic wash of Debussy. Without a doubt, though, the melody-meets-arpeggio technique of Ólafur Arnalds is the most obvious influence on the music of TSR. This track comes from Living Room Songs, a project in which Arnalds wrote and recorded the entire EP at home in the space of a week with the help of friends and family members (this track features his sister and his mother playing the synth parts). I love that you can hear the creak of the piano pedals and the faint noises of traffic outside throughout the EP, but on this track, where piano, strings and electronics meet, something truly special happens.
Mogwai – Crossing the Road Material
I’m not all about the wooshy noises and the piano loveliness. Sometimes I enjoy making a good loud noise and, in that regard, Mogwai have been an inescapable influence on everything I have recorded. In particular, though my guitar playing is undoubtedly influenced by Stuart Braithwaite, it’s more the dominant bass lines of Dominic Aitchison that seem to pull each track along by the scruff of its neck that have become my primary influence. I often begin a songwriting session by playing some Mogwai riffs on the bass as a warm-up, and this often leads into the inevitable corruptions that become new tracks in their own right. While Yellow Paint Everywhere didn’t result from any specific Mogwai track, Crossing the Road Material and Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home have underpinned so much of what I have written that it would be silly of me to try and hide that influence!
I Break Horses – All of My Tears (Spiritualized / Spacemen 3 cover)
I have a funny relationship with cover versions. Even more so when it comes to covers of artists I love dearly. Even more than that, my guiding principle over the years has always been that a good cover should do something different to the original and be interesting, otherwise why bother – right? Of course, there’s always an exception to prove the rule, and this track, which seemingly appeared from nowhere, originally under the artist name of ‘Maria,’ uses all the tricks in the shoegaze bag to somehow, bewilderingly, out-do either of Jason Pierce’s original recordings. Gauzy Hammond organs wheeze from note to note as if they can barely summon the energy to make it up the scale and back down again, gentle guitar arpeggios appear and disappear, making a cushion-soft impact before vanishing back into the haze. The vocal, with a faint Scandi-twang, is barely discernible and almost impossible to decipher, lyrically. The overall effect, however, is one of shimmering brilliance that ebbs and flows before washing away again.
