(April 2010) In 1981 Simon Driscoll, Judith Golberg and David Holecombe aka Stranger Station released a 7″, Minutes to Silence. With all the discographic information covered, the forgotten triumvirate have been found and been given a full LP on Anna Logue Records: Echoes in Infinity.
The group shred the lines of new wave music, meshing discordant pangs and strings with tortured vocals. The tracks on here have been reclaimed, found from material taken from 1981. The content has been cleaned up, but still retains a certain degree of grit such as in the hazy beaten up “Bay of Pigs.” Stranger Station are from the experimental and abstract neck of the post punk woods. Sound is toyed with, stretched and pulled, as traditional tones meets the cold metal and plastic of synth. Warbling vocals border on distortion, cutting into the uncertainty and dissociation of the LP. Synth sounds crackle and flaunt along atonal lines. Melody switches on and off across the record, with Stranger Station opting to test the listener’s perceptions throughout. Some of the material has a similar feel to that of Störung, but along much more abstract lines; such as the haunting “Not Like Me.” The B-side features the two tracks of the original 7″. “Welcome To The Night” is a cascading piano synth piece with lilting lyrics whilst somehow possessing quite a claustrophobic atmosphere. “Choose Now” stabs high chords across cracked vocals, the track languishing in a miasma of agitation and analogue. The tracks on the B-side continue to unsettle, but never really broach into the realms of disruption. “Strangers” works along almost classical lines, with organ movements combing over pulses of analogue bass. The angst and alienation comes to a close with the second track from the original 7″, “Minutes to Silence.”
Stranger Station are of a certain breed of new wave artists, as in they are were one of the first. Their sound is not really in the cold wave column, though it does have aspects of the genre. Across the record the 1981 production is present, that is the somewhat dusty atmosphere. Echoes in Infinity is an unsettled and resolute work, one that marks almost thirty years since Stranger Station were available in your local record store.
Echoes in Infinity is out now on Anna Logue.
