German stalwart Gregor Tresher continues his work in the genre of contemporary electronic music. He has almost two decades of service at the apex of the techno roster and a portfolio of releases on labels including Cocoon, Moon Harbour and Ovum.

The problem I have with this genre of music is the fact that very little ever seems to change. I remember back in the mid-'90s a good friend of mine making me a mix tape of chilled out sounds from this genre - one I wasn't overly into. The tape soon became a regular listening experience for me and I really started to get into the scene.

Lights from the Inside illustrates to me that the '90s are still alive and well and things really haven't moved on much.

The sad thing is there are tracks here that sound interesting (the haunting melody of 'Leaving' is probably the best example) but after several minutes of the same thing going around and around and around it soon starts to sound rather boring. Add to this the fact that it sounds like the soundtrack to the early Playstation game Wipeout, and you know you're taking steps backwards.

It's bland, timeless (for the genre) and overall not very taxing. But there will be those that will embrace its rather non challenging sound.

3

Nick Smithson