Arbutus Records release Graham Van Pelt's new album, Time Travel. Some may know Van Pelt as Miracle Fortress, or Inside Touch, or any of the aliases he’s used to record over the years. The album's 8 songs (44 min, 17 sec) are a tangle of friendships and feelings. Moving backwards and forwards in time, they occupy a space of elegant melancholy...

Time Travel is wonderfully retro in style, incorporating sounds and samples that anyone who grew up in the '80s will instantly latch onto. Van Pelt built the album from the bottom up, rooting every track in the crude sequencer of the Roland SH-101 synth, a decades-old dance music totem. The result are melodies that are simple but affecting, anchored to deep, wandering basslines.

Dance music plays a huge part here, as the album is engineered by Mark and Matt Thibideau, whose techno roots shine through here.

It's an engaging, chilled release that feels like it could have been released in the '80s, '90s, yesterday or 20 years from now. Well worth investing a little time in.

8

Nick Smithson