Cusp – Space + Time * Liquids + Metals

For amateur of "No 4/4 Techno" Mars The Red Planet is an high precision of sound between construction, groove, atmosphere, delay, reverb... simply magik ;)

PS : if someone have more reference in this mood , i'm interested , just send me a tiny message :)

As a Ambient enthusiast wasn't even aware of this Cd but when I first discovered via Mark Gage's Gravitational Arch of 10 which in it's own right is a masterpiece,, track 1 carried on into track 2 typifies Mr Gage's Ambient ability, we need to hear more Ambient from this fascinating artist,.

This has to be my favourite post club album to listen to as a whole. The whole flow of the album from beginning to end is an epic journey, and it gives your body something to tap along to, whilst providing sounds that move through space that lets your mind drift. It builds nicely through the tracks, and is sonic and rhythmic heaven. Probably the hardest track on here is track 6 (Uranium), which is essentially a 909 kick and clap with added zaps and an FX workout...the album finishes, with the utterly sublime Venusian Biosphere, which could easily extend beyond its 18m10s.

The album is unhurried, an in my opinion is minimalism at its best. From someone who prefers the harder side of techno, the fact I like this album so much is testament to its genius.

Mark Gage was an artist who arrived to great promise, only to disappear before the millennium hit. His Vapourspace output is legendary, and I think the only reason he never achieved the same notoriety as his label mate Richie Hawtin was due to the small amount of material he ended up releasing. This album trades under the name Cusp, but for all intensive purposes this is another Vapourspace album. It falls between Themes From Vapourspace and Sweep chronologically, but in my estimation, its sound is closer to sweep. Whereas Themes from Vapourspace travels a wide sound palette, Cusp stays very close to its source material, sculpting the highest caliber minimal techno from the same basic elements. And although I compare it more to the sound of sweep, arguably, this is the stronger album, as I found sweep unfocused and even a bit boring at times, whereas Cusp never lags and despite its refined synth based minimalism, always moves forward with a sense of purpose.

the unfortunate thing about this album is certainly its rarity, but if you are inclined to do so, and especially if you already hold Mark Gage's work in high esteem as I do, you will want to find this somehow, because it completes a part of a puzzle that leaves you with a trilogy of albums by an artist that ducked out of the music making biz far too early, IMO.