Various Artists
Space Project
Release Date: Apr 19, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Electronic, Neo-Psychedelia, Space Rock
Record label: Lefse Records
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Album Review: Space Project by Various Artists
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Concept compilation album The Space Project gathered together 14 indie-leaning bands of various styles and offered them the challenge of creating a song built at least in some way on sounds transmitted from NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 satellites, floating in deep space billions of miles from Earth. Most of the music on The Space Project doesn't take an incredibly literal approach to the concept. Mellow psych wanderers the Holydrug Couple weave the sounds of vast cosmic emptiness in as a washing texture in the middle of their grooving submission "Amphitrites Lost." The rhythmic pulses that begin Anna Meredith's synth symphony "Miranda" sound broadcast in from the abyss, but don't get in the way of the song's melodic statement.
Based on rating 3.5/5
In space, no-one can hear you scream, or do the dishes, or kill a fox with a penknife, because sound doesn’t travel in space. So there’s already a disingenuous premise at the heart of The Space Project. Lefse Records got hold of the ‘sounds’ – actually electromagnetic waves – that the deep-space Voyager probes had picked up, and gave them to tasteful indie types like Youth Lagoon, while conveniently omitting that even a boiled egg will emit waves you could then transmit as sound.
Based on rating 6.5/10
The Voyager probes, launched within less than a month of each other in 1977, were pushed into space at a time when optimism about exploring the universe was still on a relentless upswing. In 2014 you’re just as likely to read about NASA budget cuts as you are about the upcoming wave of space tourism. Now, it seems, the limitations of our galaxy have been embraced, perhaps as a way to deal with the crushing reality that there might not be much out there after all.
Opinion: Average
Todd Terje, It's Album Time It would have been easy for It’s Album Time to be only half as good as it turned out to be, because resting laurels on an innovative idea is always easier than mining the contents to discover the depth. Luckily, Norwegian producer/DJ/facial hair enthusiast Todd Terje cares too much. He always has. It’s but one of the reasons he developed such a seminally progressive reputation in the mid-00’s (his frequent collaborations with fellow Norwegian and DJ icon Lindstrøm probably didn’t hurt).
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