And Thus SF Music Was Defined.

Firstly, the official blurb from Holy McGrail. (Which unfortunately you will notice says that’s it’s no longer in production due to being a limited release - which is a shame and should be rectified by making it digitally downloadable).

SMASHED AMPS & SUNN GUITARS, a 2-part 24 minute behemoth was recorded and released to co-incide with my involvement in SUNN 0)))’s 2004 UK tour. It was released on FUCK OFF & DI in a limited pressing of 100 (a second pressing of 100 was delayed beyond the moment and subsequently cancelled to keep the release limited).

SMASHED AMPS & SUNN GUITARS, whilst in obvious homage to Earth’s monumental SUNN AMPS & SMASHED GUITARS, features some particularly glam soloing from Doggen & Oracular vocals from Bristol’s May Lucken. The release is now sold out but may be made available for digital download in the near future.

Ok, that’s the blurb overwith. Why am I so interested in this?

I guess you could say that this will be a no review - as the product is no longer available. But stick with me and I’ll try and explain.

There is Science Fiction music which we all know and mostly love. Take Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds; music of a SciFi narrative. Then there’s the signature tunes to various programmes; say Doctor Who, Star Wars, Blakes 7 et al. This is music which we recognise as being SciFi simply because we associate them with SciFi Programmes.

Ok, so far so good. Two kinds of SciFi music, one is of and the other is to.

After hearing this pretty simple but weird and alluring gem, it made me think that there is also another kind of SFi music - a track which takes music/sound/notes and strips away the crap which is not needed, focuses on what is important, to give a clean/crisp display of aural delight.

It’s rather like certain SF artwork (Mike Bohatch), where the subject is taken, then twisted, merged, darkened and changed into something from a parallel reality, only barely recognisable as the original subject. SAASG manages to do exactly the opposite, it strips music down to it’s bare essentials. Starting as short guitar riff, it gradually strips out what it doesn’t need to leave a crisp sounding single but ever changing note track.

It’s a shame it’s not available though.