| Space Rock |
Article Index for Space |
Website Links For Space |
Information AboutSpace Rock |
|
Space rock is a style of '' HISTORY Space rock emerged from the late '60s psychedelic music scene in Britain and was closely associated with the progressive rock movement of the same time period. Many of '' from their debut album '' The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn '' (the former song attributed to original band member Syd Barrett) were amongst the earliest examples of space rock. The band's second album '' A Saucerful Of Secrets '' contained new songs, such as '' Let There Be More Light '' and '' Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun '', with explicit Science Fiction themes. Later albums, such as '' Ummagumma '' and '' Meddle '' further explored the genre of space rock. A major seminal album in the history of space rock was Hawkwind's '''' a two-disk 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''. 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 and Noise Pop genres emerged into the mainstream with the explosion of bands like Slowdive , The Verve , My Bloody Valentine , Ride , The Flaming Lips , Failure and Hum . The sonic experimentation and emphasis place on texture by these bands led them to be dubbed "space rock". By 1991 (see 1991 In Music ), though, the original space rock bands had mostly fallen apart and the musicians had moved on to new bands or new styles. One famous band that became known under that label was Monster Magnet . In the mid 1990s, a number of bands built on the space rock styles of Hawkwind and Gong (band) 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. One release was '''' described as 21 tracks tracing the curving contours of ambient and electronic space rock. An at times opaque genre with too many tangents to count, space rock can be impenetrable for the casual listener. Space Daze remedies that considerably, offering tracks from both pioneers ( Brian Eno , Gong, Hawkwind ) and significant ancillaries ( Coil , Amon Düül II , Sky Cries Mary ). An enlightening space rock essay from Dave Gilbert (author of a separate book of the same name) is also included, making Space Daze a fabulous primer for anyone needing a road map for their first space rock trip. ODDITY: ODD DITTY The probable earliest example of something like space rock is a song written in the on ''Argo Records'' label). A much shorter version of the same song was recorded in the 1960s by Shirley Collins . EXAMPLES OF SPACE ROCK
NOTES SEE ALSO |
|
|