New Stuff at Spacerock Heights

If this blog has been a little quiet lately, then the volume of new music coming through the letterbox at Spacerock Heights has been anything but! I’m going to try and catch up some stuff over the long Bank Holiday weekend, still grinning from recently being labelled ‘The Man’ by Earthling Society’s Fred Laird over on Julian Cope’s Head Heritage Forum when this blog got very kindly plugged there. And thanks and hello to the thirty-odd visitors that have followed the link and visited (see I read my analytics).

Talking about Earthling Society, their follow-up to last year’s Beauty and the Beast album is out in July but I’ve been lucky enough to receive a promo from the ever excellent 4 Zero Records which I’ll be reviewing elsewhere this summer. It’s safe to say, though, that this album, with its fixation on such 60s dark Americana as Charles Manson, CIA mind control experiments and project MK-ULTRA is destined to go down a storm in Spacerock circles.

As, indeed, judging by the feedback on the Internet from their recent preview gig in Walthamstow, is the imminent third album by Litmus of which a review should be appearing here in the next few weeks. Released by Rise Above Records, as was their stellar Planetfall a couple of years back, this will undoubtedly be one to watch out for. Keep an eye out also over the summer for the second Spirits Burning with Bridget Wishart CD, Bloodlines, due from Voiceprint. I’ve heard some of the tracks in development over the last few months and it sounds to me that if you liked their first offering, Earth Born, then you’ll be blown away with this one.

Talking about being blown away, I had some e-mails with Alisa Coral of Space Mirrors (recently reviewed here) recently, where Alisa kindly told me that the reason she’d decided on Space Mirrors as a name for her band was from a suggestion I’d made in an e-mail exchange a few years back... which was rather thrilling news actually! Alisa kindly sent over another new CD that’s she’s had released, this time through the exciting RAIG label from Russia, like the new Space Mirrors this is a concept album. This time Alisa and Michael Blackman performing as Psi Corps have composed a collection of music based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, “Tekeli-li”, which I’ll be scheduling to post a review of in the next few days. Alisa has also been producing the Russian Spacerock band Vespero who also have some albums out on RAIG and I’m hoping to be reviewing some of their work in the near future. One more cheer for RAIG who have also recently issued the new Sendelia album, The Girl From The Future Who Lit Up The Sky With Golden Worlds. I won’t be reviewing that one here, because I’ve placed a review in one of the magazines I write for, but there will be an interview with Pete from Sendelica appearing here as soon as I’ve got the questions sorted out and sent over (Pete, thanks for your patience!). Another great release for fans (like me!) of trippy, Kraut-influenced Spacerock, so please do check it out!

Talking of getting Spacerock to the masses, the latest Rock N Reel magazine has now appeared, rebranded as R2 if you’re hunting the shelves of WH Smith for it (I hope you are, please support independent music press!), and I’m delighted to say has my review of Serpentina Satelite’s Nothing to Say album (released on German label Trip in Time). Always great to get a bit of extra exposure for the genre and its musicians! Away from the Spacerock scene, I’m also reviewing releases by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Joe Jackson, and Bish, and supporting the Bish review with an interview with main-man Darryl Hunt (also of The Pogues) in the current R2.

And with that round-up of all-things Spacerock landing on my doorstep in the last couple of weeks, I’m off to enjoy a well-earned Vodka Martini (made with Absolut of course), and dip into Helter Skelter’s latest title, Paul Sutton Reeves’ book on Bill Nelson & Be Bop Deluxe, Music In Dreamland. Oh how exotic the cover of their Drastic Plastic album looked in the window of John Oliver’s record shop in 1978...