space (is what we need)

 "Spacecore, psychedelic Popnoise, Trashpop-Grunge oder Feedbackpop ..."

Drowning at Tuesday were a Swiss duo made up of Moniflabel alumn Olliwor Fried and a one Souxie, presumably of "the Bashnees", and Roland the drum machine (of Big Black fame). Using the internet, this would be about the extent of information that I would be able to scrump up. That is, if not for the fact that the tape I purchased comes with a whole press kit. So I have quite a bit of info and pretty (monochrome, mostly) pictures to share.

This obscure promo tape wasn't the only thing I wanted to talk about, however. In the time I was able to dig in to this I was observing one of many a battle for acceptance in the RateYourMusic genre queue. A real battleground, the queue was hitting a stalemate on one submission that caught my eye: Space Rock Revival. At the first glance, I wasn't convinced. But on further investigations in my past listening and reading up on whatever zine scan isn't completely paywalled (or not available at all, but still somehow searchable) on Google Books, I gradually started seeing what the proposal was describing. 

A great bunch of groups at the end of the eighties gained the "revived" term of Space Rock. Especially groups residing in that ever so relevant set of islands like Loop, Spacemen 3, Flying Saucer Attack, even My Bloody Valentine. Reading back some contemporary uses I was struck by the fact that the way it is employed from the late 80s through to the 90s doesn't make distinction between the new crop and the supposed progenitors of Hawkwind, Floyd, etc. Coupled with the fact that straight-forward revivalists like Ozric are never really conflated at all makes me wonder of what reviewers meant when they said "space-rock". Of course, J Spacemen and company sound nothing much at all with other space rockers-- all bands in that scene really owe a debt to the Velvets than even more eclectic collectives like Gong. I suggested in the comments that another term used in contemporary reviews and retrospectives to this day would be "Drone Rock". As to whether this really describes the sound, that is a more INDIE/Postpunk tilt of late 60s organ monotony psych/garage, or was rather a filler term which doesn't mean much of anything except to pop in the reader's mind is up for debate. Partially due to the fact that it was so late into the submission, this didn't come to pass. I still hold out hope!

Before I completely lose track of the main subject, here is some further reading from a reviewer working in the 90s. In the article, he shirks the use of space-rock among other terms in favor of "Intuitive Music". Now, I'm not sure what sound I'm supposed to conjure up when I hear the term, so it's a bit contradictory. But, interesting nonetheless. It expands into post-rock and other areas I might have gone into if not for the fact that I don't want to totally derail this particular post.

Now then, the significance of this submission to what I'm sharing today has to do with how the music is described within this promo. Spacecore, psychedelic Popnoise, Trashpop-Grunge, Feedbackpop. It looks like a bunch of terms thrown against the wall, but I see a continuum in the first term in particular. I think it jumped out at me because one of the sources cited used the term Space-Pop. It was from Uncle Scruffi himself! I see this Space Rock Revival business as sort of a missing link between noise-pop and shoegaze, a genre caught in between really. The trouble is terming it at the end of the day.

I will admit to some embellishment: the music presented here isn't really Spiritualized or the rural psychedelia of Flying Saucer Attack... It's actually closer to Curve than anything, except much more lowfi. But I hear an inkling. It is a bit spacey, if your rocket was made from reclaimed material found at a landfill. I kinda like it, not too far off from his solo release either. Minimal by necessity, a harsh little project but well worth a listen despite never being picked up from a label.

Here