Sulatron The Movements (Space Edition) : For Sardines Space is no Problem (S,2009)***
Because of a completely different sort of approach compared to THTX which I just reviewed before, it took me a few tries before I got a grip on this -a more direct and straight musical approach towards psychedelia, but after a few tries suddenly I got the picture. I could have got some orientation much sooner, because this was all there written in the booklet, but I always want to hear first.
The music surely has a conceptual context, a story of someone born, growing up (just hear a child saying “I want to be an astronaut”), having the ambition to travel into space (some radio transmission of astronauts can be heard as introductions as well). This was about the story of Christer Fuglesang, the first Swedish cosmonaut, who had to wait until 2006 before his ambition came true. For the Swedish, he was their hero, a traveller into space. This album is a tribute to this adventurer.
With a touch of light humour this adventure is translated into space music, a few acoustic songs before the lift-off, mixed with psychedelic effects for the launch itself. “Ministers of Space” is again simple repetition with some psych keyboard themes.
I have wondered in my first listens why the band used such simple rhythms (4/4), and arrangements that were not so typical for a space rock band for instance. The concept and story with different music themes helped to withstand the difference, but it wasn’t until the last track that I was really sure that this band much more has one foot in the sixties sounds. On this closing track they used more something of (psychedelic) rock music with psych organ, and some harmony vocals, an approach which suits them actually very well and which shows their true fundament which for this album (and now I understand well) was expanded, just like earth man Christer Fuglesang, a bit further into space.
