By The Landlord
"And yet it moves." — Galileo Galilei
"The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to." — Carl Sandburg
"The sight of the stars always makes me dream." — Vincent van Gogh
"We are all made of star stuff." — Carl Sagan
“The earth is but the music of the spheres.” – Lord Byron
"There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres." - Pythagoras
“Sounds travel through space long after their wave patterns have ceased to be detectable by the human ear: some cut right through the ionosphere and barrel on out into the cosmic heartland, while others bounce around, eventually being absorbed into the vibratory fields of earthly barriers, but in neither case does the energy succumb; it goes on forever - which is why we, each of us, should take pains to make sweet notes.” – Tom Robbins
“Beep, whirr, buzz, ding, beep, bop!” - R2-D2
This week our guest guru's request, during a heavy climate of difficult and depressing news, was for something light, and somewhere in the region of pop. It's a wide brief, so how do you narrow that down in the vast musical universe?
My response was to seek a feeling of carefree weightlessness, of escapism, and so sounds that evoke the feeling of space and space travel. So then, this week is a stylistic rather than a lyrical one, designed for pure lift-off joy, spanning space disco and synth pop and other genres that contain all those sounds you associate with sci-fi and the cosmos.
Bleeps, oddball beats, abstract tones, wooshes, fizzes, static, theremin-glissandos, futuristic and reverberant synth sounds and melodies, the computerised and cathodic, electrical pulses, sparkles, crackles, blasts, beams, distorted and robotic voices, cosmic echoes, lasers, door swishes, communication codes, anything that evokes that sound of space in the imagination. From ray guns to teleporters, buttons and controls, rapid movement through the galaxy, astral slow shimmering, alien apparitions fun or frightening, sounds new or retro, but either way futuristic, and hopefully fun.
The genres that might come up may range from space age and sci-fi pop of the 1960s to 70s space disco that might also include the ephemeral joys of italo-disco, which employs many of these sounds. But anything goes, and from underground disco hits or unknowns to theme music from TV shows, if it evokes that excitement and escapism of space in your bones then share and enjoy.
I'm currently writing this on what feels like a tiny, cramped, spaceship cabin, but is actually a train with a tiny table and terrible wi-fi, so I will keep it brief.
So who might come up? Perhaps anyone from Albert One to Eduard Artemyev, Barry Gray to Billy Yfantis, Alberto Camerini to Chrome Sparks, Daft Punk to Nikolai Dobronravov or Dee D. Jackson, Fake, Fancy, or Flume, Hipnosis or The Human League to Hawkwind or Henge, Moon Ray to MGMT or Gorgio Moroder, Jean-Michel Jarre, Terry Riley to Carmen Russo, Radiorama to Les Rockets, Robert Schroeder to Sun Ra, Tangerine Dream to Isao Tomita to The Tornados, Via Verdi to Vangelis. And that's just scratching the the surface of the musical stratosphere ... but one good rule may be - as this is a sound and style topic rather than a lyrical one, let’s make it as international as possible.
The Clangers - always worth a whistle
So then, it's time to boldly go and explore. Some might backfire, but others will lift off. Hopefully you will find some pop bangers with all the space sounds to bring a feeling of carefree weightlessness.
This week's captain of the sonic spaceship is that paragon of good taste - ParaMhor! Place your songs in the boxes below for the deadline at 11pm on Moday UK time, for lift-off of playlists next week. Good luck, crew!
Les Rockets are primed for a take off
Henge are … definitely out there
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