TurnstileTime & Space

Turnstile immediately embrace their penchant for weird left turns within the first two minutes of Time & Space. They’re “waiting for the real thing” that could be themselves … if they allow a song to reach its full potential.

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Can’t Get Away has a fierce riff that morphs into a ripping guitar solo, because Turnstile don’t play by your fucking rules. Right To Be layers a vocoder over the vocals while a hardcore riff barges on through like a drunk office worker on the train ride home. Its closing moments sound more like The Bennies than your friendly neighbourhood house show. No wonder Turnstile have made such a big impact. Big Smile attempts to throw more out there elements in; then it ends. Turnstile seriously made a good go at mixing hardcore and psychedelic synths and just gave up halfway through? Potential is SQUANDERED here ladies and gentlemen. The longest song only reaches 3:15; it’s the most ‘radio’ friendly of the bunch (for hardcore at least) and that’s clearly why Generator took prime honours. Two interludes are a bit rich when they’re nearly as long as the songs themselves. Moon feels like it’s going to become a genuinely catchy banger but it drops out before the two-minute mark.

Time & Space is clearly an experiment but it feels half-baked.

This whole record goes for less than 25 minutes so if one song doesn’t tickle fancy, it’s over just as soon as it begins. They could play the whole record in an opening set and still have more than enough time for on stage banter. Time & Space is clearly an experiment but it feels half-baked. Adding psychedelic elements for the sake of it and allowing them to characterise the song (because they’re over far too soon), rather than letting them add flavour is the record’s biggest flaw. This record isn’t worthy of a low score but we’ve been given an unfinished product. That’s not blaming the engineering or songwriting; High Pressure has an old timey rockabilly piano riff that works for god’s sake. We’re blaming the band for getting to the midway point and saying, “yeah look, it’s done.” Turnstile has the secret to alchemy in their hands but with Time & Space they’re only sharing half the formula.

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STANDOUT TRACKS: Generator, Moon, High Pressure