Spaceheads And Max Eastley - The Time Of The Ancient Astronaut

The UK duo Spaceheads have long been AQ staff favorites for their unique combination of the propulsive, addictive percussion of Richard Harrison and the otherworldy looped trumpet of Andy Diagram. And there have been times when we were so lulled by the endlessly evocative trumpet that we wish it would happen in slow-motion just to stretch out the blissfulness of it all. Well, on this new outing, Spaceheads have teamed up with Max Eastley, who wields The Arc (an electric acoustic monochord), and done just that -- removed the motorik syncopated driving beats and replaced them with shimmering cymbals and small percussive gestures and squiggles, while extending the trumpet into neverendingly evocative chilled-out washes of pure vibratoless horn. Although I am not quite sure what the monochord looks like or how it works, it sounds much like an early analogue moog synth, erupting in wails at times hellish and chaotic, at times placid and harmonious. An ambient record. Relaxing yet with an undercurrent that will unsettle you in a good way.

The superb Spaceheads expand to a trio with the addition of sound sculptor and instrument inventor Max Eastley. Eastley, in my opinion, blew away all others in last year's Sonic Boom exhibition in London, his were the most creatively organic, both sonically and kinetically. Their recording, from a live performance, starts with a distantly eerie set of music with soaring trumpet, drums in irregular march and Eastley's 'Arc' (an electroacoustic monochord) imitating an out-of-tune violin for the feel of a soundtrack to a particularly grim part of a '60s Biblical epic. Though recorded as one long piece, they've thoughtfully indexed the CD into 'songs' or sections as the sounds change. Andy Diagram's trumpet flutters like a voice in tremolo, other times filling the space with impossibly long notes (he blows then expands the sound beyond the temporal range of human breath). Richard Harrison's work is far more detailed than his usual sensitive funk, mostly altered bowed and scraped and bent metal. Eastley dances in slow curlicues around them both (at least I think that's him). Very, very nice.