Time Code

The second album by YOU saw the quartet reduced to a duo of Udo Hanten and Albin Meskes. Although the adroit drumming of Harald Grosskopf and the flamboyant guitar licks of Uli Weber were definitely missed, Hanten and Meskes had a variety of ideas to translate and Time Code doesn't lack for interesting moments. Opening with a title track that's dangerously close to Kraftwerk-by-numbers, YOU fortunately expand upon that. Granted, they're usually evoking the sound of their prime influences (Vangelis and then Tangerine Dream and occasionally Manuel Göttsching), but they always find such intriguing ways to construct their tracks that it's rarely an issue (and there was never quite enough of this type of synth pop). Overall, it's an intriguing and always interesting listen that reconciles '70s sequencer trance with '80s Continental synth pop from Yellow Magic Orchestra to Cluster. ~ John Bush