Shipway, Michael

Artist: Lamp
P: 2014
Michael Shipway joined by Garth Jones made this great new album full of great melodies and sequencing. If you like VoLt and Michaels music you will love this! Retro-Sequencing at its best.

Artist: Lamp
P: 2012
Michael Shipway joined by Garth Jones made this great new album full of great melodies and sequencing. If you like VoLt and Michaels music you will love this!.

Artist: Michael Shipway
P: 1992
Michael's much awaited follow-up to 'Into Battle' visually appeals with it's impressive packaging and excellent sleevenotes - a professional image which is becoming a Surreal to Real trademark.
The CD starts with 'Arrival', a track which really sets the pace for the rest of the album featuring upbeat melodics created by a wide array of synth voices including mandolin at one stage. Another strong melody is the basis of 'The Folly' which is woven around percussion lines which feature some unusual samples - effective and enjoyable. A short but superb piano interlude is featured during the latter stages to really put the icing on a fine track.
'Caravan' uses delicate percussion and guitar voices to set a more relaxed pace somewhat reminiscent of Waveform's 'Gently Does It'. 'Celebration' returns to a more upbeat pace while 'The Dream' is carried along by an Enigma style rhythm overlaid by soothing synth lead producing one of my favourite moments.
Images as disparate as calming water samples (what self respecting modern synth album is complete without them?!) and clanking industrial percussion are blended together by another excellent tune to form 'Flying Machine', while 'After Dark' features probably the strongest and most infectious melody on the album.
Beautiful piano heralds 'Procession' which is a more grandiose affair then previous tracks. 'Secrets' sounds like a laid back version of themes visited earlier in the album and 'The Watchkeeper', after quite a deliberate start, develops into a thunderous Shreeve-like blast.
'Departure' is really too short to develop it's promising theme leaving 'Return to Battle' to close proceedings with a radical remix of 'Into Battle'. I don't think this remix has done the original any favours however, being one of the few disappointments on the album.
'Into Battle' was always going to be a tough act to follow, and I feel that many listeners, as I did, may greet initial airings of 'Folly' with a tinge of disappointment. However, the positive comments in this review have been borne out of repeated listenings to an album which has a lot to offer if one cares to look.
GG - Zenith Magazine

Artist: Michael Shipway
P: 1990 / 1994
This is an album full of contrasts and powerful rhythms. Weird and wonderful samples and melodies. Highly recomended. Into Battle was Michael Shipways first album,and the last to be released on CD.

Artist: Michael Shipway
P: 1995
Admired by many for his very unique style and sense of adventure, this album is aptly titled. The cover evokes a real pioneering spirit and not for the first time the sleevenotes provide interesting and thought provoking reading. Electronic voice samples initially hint at a shift into Synthetik dance territory, however unmistakable Shipway refrains soon take centre stage and accompanied by characteristic chant samples and flutey synth the opening title track does not disappoint. 'Highland' breezes along on a chugging beat and features a very familiar theme played in a variety of voices and styles. It's good, but at seven minutes it does go on a bit. 'Evening Star' is another adroit offering with a measured main theme and immaculate backing. Another member of the 'Sequences theme club' follows, and its similarity to 'Highland' may explain a few things. It is played with rather more gusto though and hence is a more successful outing, but still rather predictable. The segue into track 5 is very impressive, and the form continues with a very infectious theme and a confident air which combine to great effect. 'Sanctuary' suggests monastery, monastery suggests monks, monks suggest Enigma, Enigma suggests a chugging beat, silken synths and monastic chants. A chugging beat, silken synths and monastic chants characterise 'Sanctuary'. 'Jamjar' is a dense collage of electric guitar and repetitive synth voices, and it works very well. 'The Navigator' slows the pace down and is a thoughtful interlude, while 'Temple' presents ethnic rhythms and voicings in a contemporary manner. 'Chameleon' expertly combines a variety of synth styles and really does show-case Michael Shipway's considerable talents. More traditional synth voices feature in 'The Visitor', another pleasing track which closes with PC vocals (alá Waveform's Virtual World) that introduce the next track... 'Expedition'. It's here that this album really gets into top gear. This really is a superb piece which has the lot; great themes, marvellous samples, and an infectious rhythm. Classic Shipway. The PC vocals continue on 'Oasis', heralding another Enigma beat and another excellent track. Had this album finished after track 9 I would have commented that it was an album of immaculately presented EM but that it was founded on very safe ground. However, the closing quartet of tracks really do transcend this album, and go a long way to justify its 'Spirit of Adventure title'. Shipway fans will delight at what's on offer here. Newcomers may well be impressed enough to investigate other MS albums. Really, you can't ask much more than that can you? GG

Artist: Michael Shipway
P: 2011
On this album, shipway tells the story of Dan Dare. With nice Berlin school sequences and catchy melodies, he hits definatly the aim of this space story. Volt member on solo ways again.

Artist: V/A
P: 2015
'E-Scape 2015′ is a collection of exclusive tracks from artists who will be appearing at the 2015 UK E-Scape Festival on 30th May. Despite the varied line up and styles on offer, this CD hangs together very well and is a very emotive album. From the classic opening UK synth sound of John Dyson and Michael Shipway’s ‘Ride the Beach’, through the romanticism of Dreamerproject’s ‘Hymne’, and the Berlin school adventures of Ron Boots’s ‘Berlin Thunder’, the album never dips below ‘excellent’ and there are no throwaway tracks here. Eric van der Heijden’s ‘Strange Escapism’ is a surreal sound voyage, FD Project’s ‘Beautiful Day’ is a full on, guitar driven live recording. David Wright’s ‘Walking With Ghosts’ Ambient Remix by DJMass is an interesting take on an old favourite and ‘Song for a Friend’ is a delicate rhythmic, ballad dedicated to the late Steve Roberts. Glenn Main’s beautiful ‘Escape the TNBC’ also has a strong personal overtone. Nice to hear music from Paul Ward again too, the interesting and playful ‘The Last Toy Emily Broke’ while Ron Boots concludes the album with the drifting and spaced out ‘Slow Flow’.

The album is dedicated to the memory of Edgar Froese and Steve Roberts.
 

This 2015 release features 77 minutes of dreamy electronic music.

This release offers previously unreleased tracks by musicians participating in AD Music’s E-Scape Electronic Music Festival in 2015. The contributions include:

John Dyson & Michael Shipway. Twinkling tones conspire with cerebral chords to produce an elegant tune laced with rhythms.

David Wright. Solemn beats and melancholy keyboards craft a stately piece dedicated to lost friends.

Eric van der Heijden. Reedy keys combine with breathy flutes and gentle percussives to generate a moody track in search of a way out.

Dreamerproject. Delicate harpsichord, rhythms and orchestral strings create a reverent song of tender sentiments.

Ron Boots. Majestic-but-understated electronics generate a mood of anticipation with cyclic chords seasoned by synthetic strings. The music gradually swells in muster, featuring a blooping undercurrent as the song’s puissance mounts to a loving crescendo.

Paul Ward. Strong rhythms support slippery keys that describe an edgy tune.

FD Project. Vibrant electric guitar is the key instrument here, accompanied by percussion and a ringing presence of pulsating tonalities to establish an ecstatic live piece.

David Wright. Regal tones delineate a pleasant tune laced with choral hints and whispery keys lurking beneath the more strident keyboard lead-riff.

Glenn Main. Piano joins electronic keys in a pastiche of fragile beauty that uplifts as it mesmerizes. The introduction of searing guitar midway elevates the piece’s inherent passion.

Ron Boots. Here, we have an epic (and winning) contribution-at 21 minutes in length. Rattly percussives tease vaporous electronics to coalesce into a soothing ambience that mounts some stately oomph with piano and additional keys, transforming the song into a lavishly emotional composition.

A worthwhile selection of international musicians, all displaying their skills at producing delicate electronic tuneage.

Artist: Ian Boddy, Shipway, John Dyson,
Mark Shreeve, Ward u.a.
P: 1991
Nice collection with new and already released tracks from the Surreal to Real label around 1990.
Track 10 recorded live at UK Electronica festival in 1990.
Track 12 recorded live during rehersals for the 1991 Klemdag festival, Netherlands.

Here the last copy!