“For Sardines Space is No Problem”.

The Movements are a Swedish band, usually found playing a blend of garage rock and psychedelia with touches of space rock. However, inspired by ....Sweden....'s first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, who just blasted off on his second mission into space on August 28th of this year (the first one was in 2006), they decided to fully embrace their space rock leanings for their latest album, For Sardines Space Is No Problem. This is a concept album about Fuglesang, his life and his journey into space, so I'm guessing the opening cut, A Birth Under the Northern Sky, is an ode to his beginnings. It's a majestic, but also haunting organ and synth driven piece, with a slow and stately beat, culminating in the sounds of a baby crying. It sets a reverent tone for the album, which is a lovely beginning, but doesn't really hint at the humour, craziness, and all out rocking that is to come. A young boy utters the title of the next song, Mother, Someday I'm Going To Be An Astronaut, and the band launches into a fury of space rocking with wild guitars and gurgling, bubbling synths, all somewhat reminiscent of some of the jams of Space Ritual era Hawkwind, before it takes a left turn into a Gong inspired vocal part near the end. In the Footsteps of Gagarin borrows a trick from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, starting with a buzzing radio transmission, and the main riff of the song beginning as a distant and static laden signal, before it kicks in to high fidelity. The underlying riff is near orchestral, with cosmic synths wooshing throughout as tripped out, distorted vocals sing the main melody to great effect. In true Hawkwind tradition, there's a strummy acoustic piece on the album as well, this in the form of Trapped On Earth, with a very catchy lullaby-like melody played on what sounds like a Glockenspiel. But wait! Half way through it blasts into an energetic space rocker, with the same chord progression and melody (this time played on cosmic synths), and an absolutely smoking organ solo. Go Now My Friend (Out Into Space) has a laid back rhythm with gentle slide guitar and soft sine wavey synth line and a kind of old-timey Caribbean sound to the vocals, but it gradually gets stranger and spacier until it finally culminates in the hero blasting off into space in a sonic freak out of countdowns and crazy interstellar sounds. That Is the Wrong Bolt Christer, Standby is a short, dreamy instrumental, perfect music for spacewalks, complete with authentic radio transmissions from Earth and the astronauts. Ministers of Space is the longest track on the album (at just over 9-minutes) and combines a Neu-style motorik rhythm with flute, weird space electronics and other effects for a totally hypnotic journey that builds slowly and inevitably to another dazzling space rock jam. It all brings us to the final track on the album, The Grasp of the King's Hand Is Not Enough, a blistering, melodic minor key psychedelic rocker with a distinct 60's influence that finally dissolves into a stretched out rumbling and cosmic finale.There's not a single misstep on this album, it's a solid effort from start to finish, achieving a perfect blend of catchy song writing with instrumental space rocking madness. And just a few days before I wrote this review, it was confirmed that Christer Fuglesang had taken a copy of it with him on his current mission to the International Space Station, making this the very first space rock to be actually played in outer space. Very cool! If you're a space rock fan, this is an album you can't miss! Highly recommended!

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald....

http://aural-innovations.com/2009/october/themovements.htm

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THE MOVEMENTS....

“The World, The Flesh and The Devil”....

“For Sardines Space is No Problem”....

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It’s hard to believe listening to these two albums that this is the same band. ‘The World, The Flesh and the Devil’ has by the band’s own admission ‘a harder than darker sound’ than the band were associated with. reflecting their concern for seriously ill singer/ guitarist David Henriksson, ‘very much the product of being written from a hospital bed’. Originally playing in a style perfected by ‘crashy garage rock bands of the 60’s’ it’s a heavy album but also one that reveals the potential of the band with guest players on cello, violin, voila, horn and cornet.....

The concept album ‘For Sardines Space is No Problem’ sees the band heading in a new direction- outer space and this is a direction of travel well worth repeating for The Movements have made an album that, in time, could stand up there among the elite of space rock recordings. There are no strings this time and more overt use is made of keyboards and ‘deep space flute’. The album has already become famous as Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, the man who inspired the music, took the music into space aboard the shuttle Discovery. I hope he was careful with his headphone settings on the classic Hawkwind inspired ‘Mother, Some Day I’m Going To Be An Astronaut’, a great space rock freakout with swishing synths and searing guitars. In fact the whole album is a brilliant evocation on outer space with enough variation and ‘light and shade’ to keep the listener engrossed to the very end. The subtle ‘Ministers of Space’, for example recalls Fujiya and Miyagi’s ‘Ankle Injuries’ and ‘Kosmische Rock’ band Neu. ....

Music from The Movements will be used in a Swedish produced Star Trek fan movie ‘Gatekeeper’ and this is well worth looking out for. Meanwhile, all serious fans of space rock should be checking out ‘For Sardines Space is No Problem’. (I am grateful for Jerry Kranitz’s ‘Aural Innovations’ radio show which is where I first heard this band....

Contact: www.themovements.com and www.sulatron.com (Sulatron Records)....

(Phil Jackson)....

Acid Dragon