H’mmm, interesting times. I was out and about on my travels yesterday and I had the excellent, ‘Origin of Symmetry’ by Muse playing on my car stereo. ‘Not only do they rock,’ I was thinking, ‘but I just love that spacey sound they have!’ When I got home and unlaced my new mizuno running shoes (which are awesome by the way), I decided it would be a good idea to put on my investigation slippers and dedicate a little of my time to poring through YouTube… What other bands were out there with a similar kind of ‘cosmic-rock’ sound?
Well, I didn’t come up with anyone quite on par with Muse, but I did find a few interesting tracks that were based on that spacey thing. First up was Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s band, Star One. They come under the heading of Space Metal and their album makes very interesting listening (it also has a brilliantly drawn cover). Each song has been written around the stories from different Sci-Fi movies and TV shows. It has a distinctly ‘retro’ feel to it all, harking back to the Metal bands of old, particularly Hawkwind. My favourite track is the belting; ‘Intergalactic Space Crusaders’ (written about ‘Blake’s 7’).
However, my investigations into cosmically-inspired music are far from over… The latest thing I stumbled across was a Progressive House band called Deadmau5 (pronounced ‘dead mouse’). I’m not normally big on House, but it did make interesting listening!
Space-orientated sounds have resulted in some truly great music over the years. Think about stuff like the awesome ‘Moon Safari’ by Air, the sublime ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd or uber Ambient works such as the brilliant ‘Solaris’ soundtrack by Cliff Martinez. I am sure there is loads of other stuff out there to discover that employs that cosmic vibe. I am going to hop into my shuttle-pod, buckle-up and set the controls for the heart of the sun!