Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space (2015)

I grew up in the 1960s where space travel and the moon landings were as exciting a real life adventure as a young boy could imagine. We really thought that it was a first step to conquering the whole solar system, little imagining it would be nearly 50 years after Apollo 17 before Artemis would return to the moon (and not even bother landing!)

And as a young prog enthusiast, what could tickle me more than a concept album based on the 1960s space race? PSB's first album tested the water for contemporary news snippets merged with atmospheric / ambient music, but this is their first whole themed album. Starting with the famous JFK pledge to go to the moon, over a gently ambient background (The Race For Space), there's a nod to Sputnik before Gagarin, an exciting horn heavy piece accompanying the news of the first manned space flight.

Fire In The Cockpit takes the mood down several notches, with a sombre soundscape beneath news reports of the Apollo 1 fire which killed three astronauts. EVA tells us of the first spacewalk, to an unintrusive guitar led tune.

The Other Side uses the music disappearing and returning effectively, telling the tale of Apollo 8's first orbit to the far side of the moon.

The chronology shifts slightly with Valentina, celebrating cosmonaut Tereshkova, who at the time of the moon landings was the only woman to have travelled in space; it's a pleasant piece without exciting, unlike the highpoint of the album, Go! which tells the story of the Apollo 11 moon landings. It's an upbeat, optimistic tune which uses the Houston ground crew instructions and conversations to fine effect. The album ends with Tomorrow, referring to Apollo 17, the final moon landing, which just like the Apollo programme, limps to a conclusion with a quiet whimper.

This is, however, a really enjoyable album, if you accept that the news snippets are the main course, and the music acts to enhance these, rather than stand alone.

Link to full album (and video footage)

4* - a really enjoyable wander through the space race of the 1960s and 1970s