Optimo give vinyl release to 1980 Chris Carter classic

Optimo Music will release the first ever vinyl edition of Chris Carter‘s The Space Between in mid-September.

The album was recorded over the years 1974-78 and originally released as a 90-minute cassette in 1980 on Industrial Records, the label operated by Carter’s band Throbbing Gristle. In 1991, Mute reissued the album on the CD, but there has been no vinyl version of this seminal collection until now.

Subtly retitled The Spaces Between and boasting new artwork, Optimo’s hugely welcome vinyl pressing isn’t strictly speaking a reissue, as JD Twitch explains:

”The original release featured fifteen tracks. As I wanted to have a reasonably loud vinyl pressing, I have picked my favourite six to appear here (not an easy task to narrow it down). In addition there is a bonus track “Climbing” which was recorded around the same time that was released by Coil’s Geoff Rushton (AKA Jhon Balance) on his Men With Deadly Dreams cassette in 1981. One of the first ever recordings to use an 808 drum machine, it still sounds as if it is from tomorrow.  ”

“These are some of the key recordings in the history of electronic music.” – JD Twitch

Listening to these tracks today, it’s astonishing to think that they were made in the 1970s. Twitch has certainly chosen six excellent tracks from the original set: beginning with obliquely funky hypno-industrial ‘Beat’, The Spaces Between takes in the Autobahn drift of ‘Outreach’, the shattering atmospherics of ‘Electrodub 1’ and ‘Solidit’ (like a less cluttered TG or Cabs), the beatless synth romanticism of ‘Clouds’, and the intense, sci-fi pulsations of ‘Interloop’. Of course, there are some unfortunate omissions – serene ambient workout ‘Resonance’, the impish vocal track ‘Maybe’, the Kraftwerk-esque ‘Walkabout’, the itchy analogue noir of ‘Electrodoub 2’ and ‘Poptone’ – but we’ll live.

The supreme sonic architect behind Throbbing Gristle, and subsequently Chris & Cosey, CTI and Carter Tutti, Chris Carter is one of electronic music’s most important figures, his studio adventurousness matched only by his natural pop nous. His 70s and early-mid 80s explorations of repetitive, trance-inducing synthesizer music eerily prefigured techno, and despite the relatively lo-fi recording techniques of the day, it sounds as pristine and futuristic today as it did back then.

The Space Between is a landmark album; Optimo’s vinyl edition is a must-have, but be sure to check out the Mute CD as well for the tracks that didn’t make the cut. Everyone needs to hear this music, but especially fans of Kraftwerk, Carl Craig, Cabaret Voltaire, Bernard Szajner, Cluster, Oneohtrix Point Never, Belbury Poly and the Minimal Wave sound.

“These are some of the key recordings in the history of electronic music,” concludes Twitch. “They were made using very basic equipment at a time when there was no blueprint for what electronic music could and should be. There is a beauty, an emotion and an imagination present here that is lacking in a lot of modern machine music. This music is as vital and wondrous today as it was four decades ago.”