Space rock

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Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early mostly British 1970s progressive rock and psychedelic bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd,^[1] characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by synthesizers, experimental guitar work and science fiction lyrical themes, though it was later repurposed to refer to a series of late 1980s British alternative rock bands that drew from earlier influences to create a more melodic but still ambient form of pop music.^[2] The term was revived in the 21st century to refer to a new crop of bands including the Flowers Of Hell ^[3], Comets On Fire ^[4], and Flotation Toy Warning ^[5] who diversely draw upon the ideas and sounds of both waves of the genre’s founders.

[edit] History

[edit] Emergence

Space rock emerged from the late 1960s psychedelic music scene in Britain and was closely associated with the progressive rock movement of the same time period.

Pink Floyd's early albums contain pioneering development of space rock on some tracks; for example "Astronomy Domine" ^[6] and "Interstellar Overdrive" ^[7] from their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn are examples. Their second album A Saucerful of Secrets contained further examples: "Let There Be More Light" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" with explicit science fiction themes, that also manifested itself in so-called Googie architecture.

The Beatles' Flying originally been titled "Aerial Tour Instrumental" was a psychedelic instrumental about the sensation of flying, whether in a craft or in your own head space. ^[8] The Rolling Stones' 1967 song "2000 Light Years from Home", which drew heavily on some of the aforementioned Pink Floyd songs, is another early example. Jimi Hendrix is also an early innovator of the genre, with such tracks as "Third Stone from the Sun", "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" and "Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice".

During the middle of the second set of a Grateful Dead concert throughout the late 1970’s to 1990’s, the band would go into a drum solo to a space rock section

David Bowie's "Space Oddity" (1969) is probably the best example of a space rock song achieving mainstream recognition. A major album in the history of space rock was Hawkwind's Space Ritual (1973),^[9] a two-disc live album advertised as "88 minutes of brain-damage" documenting Hawkwind's successful 1972 tour of their blow-out show complete with liquid lights and lasers, nude dancers (notably the earth-mother figure Stacia), wild costumes and psychedelic imagery. This hard-edged concert experience attracted a motley but dedicated collection of psychedelic drugs users, science-fiction fans and motorcycle riders. The science fiction author Michael Moorcock collaborated with Hawkwind on many occasions: for example, he wrote the lyrics for many of the spoken-word sections on Space Ritual.

[edit] 1990s revival

By the early 1990s, the term "space rock" came to be used when describing numerous American and British alternative rock bands of the time. Shoegazing, Stoner Rock and noise pop genres emerged into the mainstream with the explosion of bands such as Kyuss, Slowdive, The Verve, My Bloody Valentine, Loop, Ride, The Flaming Lips, Failure, Tool, Monster Magnet, Supergrass, Hum, Spacemen 3 and Mercury Rev. The sonic experimentation and emphasis placed on texture by these bands led them to be dubbed "space rock". By the mid to late 90s, however, the original space rock bands had mostly fallen apart and the musicians had moved on to new bands or new styles.

In the mid 1990s, a number of bands built on the space rock styles of Hawkwind and Gong appeared in America. Some of these bands (such as Pressurehed and Melting Euphoria) were signed to Cleopatra records, which then proceeded to release numerous space rock compilations. The Strange Daze festivals from 1997-2000 showcased the American space rock scene in 3 day outdoor festivals. The shows were headlined by Hawkwind and Nik Turner in 1997 and featured major players of American space rock: F/i, Alien Planetscapes, Architectural Metaphor, Quarkspace, Melting Euphoria, Pressurehed, Nucleon, Bionaut, Born to Go and others.

A Michigan based space rock scene included Burnt Hair Records, Darla Records, and bands such as Windy & Carl, Mahogany (band), Tomorrowland, Delta Waves , Starphase 23, Füxa, Auburn Lull, Monaural, Asha Vida, and Alison's Halo. This was a modern movement of the traditional "space rock" sound and was pinned Detroit Space Rock.

[edit] Space rock in the 21st century

Space themes continue to influence and play a part in modern rock music. In the United Kingdom, Radiohead has utilized the genre in recent years. Muse's album Origin of Symmetry contains several examples of space rock, such as "Space Dementia", "Dead Star", "Bliss", and "Citizen Erased". In the USA, The Mars Volta, 30 Seconds to Mars, Mugstar, Coheed and Cambria, Angels and Airwaves, The Boxing Lesson and Eleventyseven's newest album Galactic Conquest also show an interest in galactic themes.

The first reported involvement of NASA and space rock came in 2009 when an off duty worker from the shuttle program synchronised footage of a Discovery launch with the Flowers Of Hell's 'Sympathy For Vengeance' in an online video which became popular amongst staff at the Kennedy Space Center.^[10]

Star One's 2002 Space Metal The album mixes space rock and Progressive metal, and many of the songs are linked conceptually by having cult science fiction movies or TV series as their subjects.

[edit] Examples of Space Rock

• Amon Düül II
• Ash Ra Tempel
• Ayreon

• Babylon Zoo
• Bardo Pond
• Baxter Dury
• David Bowie
• The Boxing Lesson
• Bowery Electric

• Cosmic Jokers

• Eloy
• The Flaming Lips
• Flowers Of Hell
• Flying Saucer Attack
• FM
• Füxa
• Gong
• Hawkwind
• Hidria Spacefolk
• Hum
• Lansing-Dreiden
• Lothar and the Hand People
• Mercury Rev
• Modest Mouse
• Monster Magnet
• Nektar
• Ozric Tentacles
• Pink Floyd
• Psyrin
• The Secret Machines
• Spacemen 3
• Space Ritual
• Spiritualized
• Star One
• UFO
• The United States of America

[edit] Notes