An Ode To Space
'Sounds From Outer Space' is a curious compilation of tracks chosen by The Horrors and distributed to fans in attendance at the NME Indie Rock tour this year.
Giving hints to where the band's own wacky style comes from, the CD opens with Rob Freeman and The Blue Men's 'I Hear A New World', a spaced-out number with cavernous echoes consuming its mellow vocals. If this track starts off the journey into space, then Spectrum's offering whisks you far into hyperspace with trippy synth effects and weightless squelches.
There's an injection of icy whispers against stark synth squeals on Suicide's, 'Spaceship', an ode to musical experimentation if ever there was one. Everything on this compilation is unsettling, but 'Lovefingers' is perhaps one of the weird tracks; a gravely hippy folk refrain is accompanied, and disturbed in its flow by space age beats to the most curious effect. Curious chiming sounds are intertwined with ethereal flute noises, all courtesy of music's finest inventions, the synth on Tom Dissevelt's wacky, 'Drifting', a tune that sounds not unlike a small child messing around on their first keyboard, or the first meeting with an alien lifeform in the movies.
Paul St John's 'Spaceship Lover' is another 80's delight with a hint of Bowie in the falsetto vocals, but a thoroughly engaging tune with a smooth groove to its guitarwork; one of the few tunes on this space themed CD that doesn't replace guitars with synths.
This is a thoroughly odd collection of intergalactic tunes that reflects on The Horrors's weird minds, but is far from the goth scamps' own fair of jittery dark vibes.