Red Line
Some Trans Am fans haven't quite forgiven the band for adding vocals to their formerly all-instrumental style, and the "Warning: Vocoder Ahead" sign is still in full effect for this CD. However, the vocal numbers on here are as reminiscent of mid-'70sBrian Enoas they are ofKraftwerk. The group have always veered back and forth between metal-edged power-trio rock and electronic music without trying terribly hard to combine the two. On earlier records, the trio seemed quite comfortable with the fact that they liked to do different styles of music that sound dissimilar.Red Lineis their sixth full-length release (counting the quite essential collection of rare tracks,You Can Always Get What You Want, that came out earlier this year), and it is ambitious and long (21 tracks) but consistently rewarding. Also, without entirely leaving their bipolar stylistic tendencies behind, they have started to integrate their music--the electronic pieces rock a little harder and the rockers incorporate more weird electronic sounds. The aforementioned Vocoder (a device that transforms your voice into the Space Family Robinson's robot) only dominates two pieces, and the ebb and flow throughout the record between structured songs and open-ended experimental pieces gives the CD an appealingly sprawling quality. Special mention must be made of "The Dark Gift," a nine-minute song that toys with the style of the classic prog-rock grand opus by starting with lyrical acoustic guitar melodies, building up to a hypnotically repetitive riff-o-rama, and closing with two minutes of melodic, sustained synth sounds.--Bob Bannister