The Borderland was a large music review website administered by British music journalist John M Peters and featuring music that was generally produced by underground artists and small independent labels. The site closed in 2018, and I guess that all of the reviews were then lost as I can't find any on the ephemeral internet. The Borderland reviewed many of my early albums in the 2000-2010 decade, and when I asked about these in 2018, John sent me copies of his reviews, so for reasons of information preservation I've decided reproduce them here verbatim for posterity, one post at a time.
My note: This applies to The Flatspace Soundtrack, now known as Flatspace (The Official Soundtrack). The rename was due to contemporary streaming rules regarding soundtracks. The music was always, and remains to date, the same: R6A, released 03/12/2003.
Mark Sheeky - The Flatspace
The latest album by independent musician and games programmer Mark Sheeky is the soundtrack to a new game he's written called Flatspace. And while I have no idea what sort of game Flatspace actually is, I can tell you that some of the music he's written and performed to accompany the game is extremely fine indeed, and stand up in its own right as pop-inflected electronica.
In some ways tracks such as the title tune and Conversion remind me a little of the music of French band Air, while Cobra has a little of Jan Hammer's Miami Vice funky vibe to it. The following tracks, Wilderness Fog and Snow are more ambient and probably represent tranquil sections of the game. But taken overall this album of music transcends what you would label as merely soundtrack and stands out on its own merits as extremely upbeat, atmospheric music that is well worth listening. What is equally amazing is that while Mark designed and programed the game and composed and performed the music he also wrote the recording studio/synthesizer software called Noise Station 2 on which it was created.
If you'd like to find out more about Noise Station 2, or how to order this album or game then I strongly urge you to check out Mark's website - see the link on the left.
- John M Peters/The Borderland
