Got Time for a Shard?

TimeShard were comprised of Steve Angstrom, Psy, & Gobber

 

The three got together to experiment sonically in 1988, sharing a common interest in creating a new kind of "shamanic trance music" with tapes loops & synthetic noises, an audio collage of found sounds from radio or film, edited sounds over burbling distorted rhythms, creating a new kind of mythic music concrete. TimeShard wanted to explore the untapped potential in creating a new kind of psychedelic state. At the time technology was considered "cold & impersonal", far from magical. TimeShard saw that the crystals which drove much of this equipment could have a deep power to inspire & to conjure something new, something weirdly powerful. TimeShard experimented with tape, borrowed multitracks, cheap downtime in local recording studios, borrowed synthesizers.

At first they performed some very strange dub inflected trance music for confused listeners. Their early music was a synthesis of dub with the pulsating sounds of Kraftwerk or the slower influence of Brian Eno. Their signature sound was analogue synthesizers, sequencers, & drum machines overlaid with glissando guitars along with an electric sitar. During their first five years Gobber, Psi, & Angstrom became known as one of the UK's first live acid house acts. During this time they developed a sound which later became known as Psychedelic trance although at the time they were often described as producing Ambient or Shamanic Trance music.

Liverpool dance music shop / record label 3Beat offered the Shardies a chance to record an album. The three hairy weirdos along with their friends & their manager travelled down to London to record in a state of the art recording studio. Though 3Beat had paid for the recording of Timeshard's Crystal Oscillations album, the fit was just not right. 3beat was a more traditional dance label favouring charty dance hits.

Lucky for everyone, Gobber's time running Sound Systems had put him in touch with the members of Eat Static & their friends at MegaDog right at the perfect time.  DJ Michael Dog had decided to start a label to release the sounds of that unique festival-influenced scene. Michael met with the TimeShard crew at the London headquarters of Planet Dog/Ultimate records. A few joints & a handshake later  everything was ironed out. An agreement was reached to release the psychedelic electronic Crystal Oscillations. It was a perfect fit with the Planet Dog / Megadog family.

 

 

Timeshard - Crystal Oscillations, Planet Dog BARKCD004, 1994.
decryption codes in comments

Voodoo Chronometer    
25th Century    
Psionic Lattice    
Metamind    
Oracle    
Cosmic Carrot    
Crystal Oscillations    
Human Error    
Secret Song of the Sea    
The Others

 

 

 

 

This CD single came out the following year... 

Timeshard - Zero (Ouroboros), Planet Dog BARK008CDS, 1995.

Photon (Wave)
Photon (Particle)
Zero
X-Ray Ears

 

 

 

Who let the dogs out,
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