Saturday 28 February 2015

The Other Side



I have been (impatiently) waiting for the release of Public Service Broadcasting's latest offering ever since I heard the excellent 'Gagarin' and learned that the next album would be a concept based around the Superpowers' race for space in the 60s and 70s. I was expecting tales straight out of the library text books of my childhood, and I wasn't disappointed - Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, Apollo 11 all feature - but the track that has taken my imagination, emotion and breath away is 'The Other Side'.

It describes the moments on Christmas Eve 1968 when the astronauts of Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit the moon and therefore see the dark side. The point at which the craft disappears into radio silence as it traverses the other side is very powerful and second only to the euphoria of the re-emergence 45 minutes later.

Whether you like electronic music or not, this is the most powerful and emotive thing I've heard in a long while. Have a listen to it. Wear headphones, close your eyes and imagine you are there, at the vanguard of human endeavour. Imagine what's going through the minds of the astronauts and the controller on the ground in Huston, who narrates the events as they unfold.

Top stuff, Public Service Broadcasting, top stuff.


Sunday 15 February 2015

Latest Apple Ad - The Orwells: Who Needs You



When I started this blog one of the things I looked at was the music from TV adverts. Often you hear the song but at the time it was hard to track them down (even with Google). Now with Shazam it's a easier and no doubt will get easier. So adverts no longer tend to be non mainstream tracks as people can hunt them down so much easier. I'm particularly enjoying the latest tune to accompany an Apple commercial. The Orwells. With a nudge from my musical friends I've started trialing Spotify so I'm also going to check out their album. Again something that has got easier. Now what am I going to do with all that time I've saved.