Short Reviews [Shadow Lab - 2024 - "War On Titan"]

I am not sure just how long ago I first came across Mark Price, but let’s just say it has been a while, and I have followed his musical career with multiple bands including Final Conflict (I was wearing my ‘Redress The Balance’ shirt just yesterday), Framework and Grace while these days he is in High Spy. He has also kept a solo career going through this time, releasing 14 albums since 1983, and here he is with his new project, Shadow Lab. What we have here is a concept album, but one without words so Mark has kindly told us what it is all about on his Bandcamp page, “The year is 2126 AD, the planet Mars is colonised by people from Earth and it boasts modern cities in display of dazzling magnificence, rotating aerial orbs give light to the cities by night in an array of stunning hues and colours. Further out in the colder reaches of the solar system, Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has undergone major atmospheric transformation, from a former frozen methane world to one undergoing terra-forming processes, and a new colony has been founded. The reason for this new effort on Titan? A new metal called Titanium 326 has been discovered, and this proves to be the strongest metal ever to be found. And so a mining colony and metal processing plant is installed on Titan called Cincinnati 2, after the moon has been terra-formed by the use of ultra-modern weather modulation towers. Years later in 2171 AD, the weather modulation towers mysteriously implode one by one, plunging Titan into a downward cycle of cataclysmic storms and a seemingly unstoppable process of a climate that is reverting back to its original state before humans ever touched down on this strange world. All contact with the colonists on Titan is now lost, and shipments of the new metal Titanium 326 fail to arrive on either Earth or Mars. And so it is decided that a rescue mission is to be sent to Titan, a joint operation sponsored by both Earth and Mars, to see if there are any survivors to be rescued? Meanwhile Titan is ravaged by storms of a magnitude never before seen, temperatures plummet and the ground freezes, only to crack open, refreeze and crack asunder again, causing splinters and shockwaves across the whole of this moon. Weather modulation towers first implode followed by nuclear powered blasts, and with each, the climate on Titan is violently ripped apart as it begins to return to its normal state. As the storms rage outside, all within the metal processing plant is still and silent, but nowhere can there be a single person found, here or in the city of Cincinnati 2, yet the main computers in the plant continue to flicker, as though all is well! A rescue team is assembled, a joint operation from both Earth and Mars. A crack team of super soldiers is sent to Titan, a new generation of soldiers who have been subjected to scientific experiments to enhance their fighting abilities. But can they control the dark and primeval urges that threaten to overcome them in their enhanced state? And once on Titan, can they hold their nerve, and indeed can they stay alive when the lightning strikes, when the wind of the storms super freeze the abandoned town, and the ever-encroaching darkness threatens to extinguish all that life holds dear.” Given there are no vocals on the album itself it is down to our imagination, the song titles and the story for us to decide what is taking place, but I find that works very well indeed. While Tangerine Dream are an obvious influence here, Mark is also revisiting his love of Vangelis, the result being an electronic progressive album which has a lot going for it. There are plenty of dynamics and a feeling of menace as move through the story – some electronic albums can feel quite one-dimensional but that is certainly not the case here as there are highs and lows, and the use of different keyboard sounds and styles carries us through. This is very different indeed to what we normally hear from Mark in High Spy, and one can see why he has released this under a different name to his own as in many ways this indicates a new beginning and I am certainly interested in seeing what happens next.