Bruton Music Library – BRI 11 The Video Age (1980)

Tracklisting:
1. Turbo
2. Better Ways
3. Autocue
4. Mechanics
5. Communique
6. Electro Montage 1
7. Electro Montage 2
8. Up Market
9. Full Circle
10. Soft Shades
11. Tradition
12. Perfection 1
13. Perfection 2
14. Narrative
15. Satellite
16. Future Promise
17. Clean Machine
18. Preview
Composers: Trevor Bastow [1-4, 10, 16-18], Geoff Bastow [5-9, 11-15]

Source: Vinyl LP
Format: V0 VBR MP3 [FLAC lossless format available upon request]
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Thoroughly modern, this 1980 set from the ever-missed Bastow brothers is one of Bruton’s all-around most enjoyable collections. There is a lot of creative, bright, and melodic use of synthesizer on this set — some of the work (particularly Geoff Bastow’s work on side B and Trevor Bastow’s “Better Ways” on side A) much resembles the work of composers on Squaresoft (or like) role-playing video games, speaking to how high-quality the compositions actually are. Trevor also shines on the opener “Turbo” (which urges the listener to listen to the rest of this set), the powerful “Communique”, and the chilled-out “Soft Shades”, which seems to be a sequel to his own “Shades” (which has appeared on BRD 10 Relax as well as BRH 8 Rhythm Stick, both reviewed here). Geoff’s “Up Market” is certainly a highlight, hitting an intersection of mellow, funky, and industrious all at once, inspiring repeat listens. On Side B, songs like “Tradition” show how warm and “complete” synthesizer playing really can be, as they are without any sort of percussion. By the time Trevor’s pleasant “Preview” ends, you’ll be tempted to go all the way back to “Turbo” and start again.

[Side Note: I found a really great transfer of this LP sometime last year, with amazing sound quality. Its only flaw was a bit of overzealous click removal on “Tradition” which clipped out some of the synth sounds, which is not the case with the version shared here; I have done my best to approach the quality of that transfer here, as the bar was set pretty high. – Doc]