Customer Reviews

Is It Man Or Astro Man?

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Man... or Astroman? came out with an impresive debut album when this was released back in 1993. This self titled album was a precedent to the music they would release later in their many albums to follow this one. This is were it all started, when Man... or Astroman? started with its humor and talent with the mixture of b-movie samples and amazing songs. The songs presented on this album are deemed classic Man... or Astroman? songs. Them being the first songs released for the whole audience of the world to hear. These songs are just incredible to listen to.

It all starts with Taxidermist Surf, a song that shows what is to come in the following songs and albums. Then as a follow up song is Invasion of the Dragonmen, a song that captures the listeners attention with the b-movie sample and then holds that attention with a great song. Nitrous Burn Out and Clean Up on Aisle #9 are just what is meant by classic songs by Man... or Astroman? And then Man... or Astroman? show how well they can cover a song by doing a cover song of one of the original innovators of surf, The Ventures, with a cover of their classic song 'Journey to the Stars'. All the songs that follow up until the last song, cheerfully named 'Alien Visitors', are a bundle of listening pleasure.

All these songs are played by the original recording members of Man... or Astroman? Starcrunch who plays lead guitar. Birdstuff who plays drums. Coco, The Electronic Monkey Wizard who plays the occasional bass, percussion, and is responsible for the sound bites. Finally there is Dr. Delecto & His Invisible Vaportron, who is refered to in the following album as Dr. Deleto, who plays bass, and rhythm guitar.

This foursome has come a long way, and through many changes in so many different regions of their attire and music genre, from this first album all the way up until their latest full length release, Spectrum of Infinite Scale. Man... or Astroman? have been releasing albums at an impressive rate and for this to be the first of their many, it is a prophecy proven true that they were destine to be great from the beginning.

coco,birdstuff,starcrunch and deleto combine cheesy B sci fi movies with instrumental surf to create a very impressive debut. This cd contains a cover of the ventures' song Journey to the stars, this is a must own for anyone who loves Man or Astro-man? or any instrumental surf band.

I really enjoy Man or Astro-man, the band. I really like their fun attitude and love of old-fashioned sci-fi and sound bites.

If they have a weakness, it is that the lack of lyrics and singing forces the music to rely on the surfer sounds of their retro rock style. You basically get consistent surfer rock instrumentals with humorous sound bites tossed in. The sound bites become more memorable and identifiable than the songs.

I enjoy the music, but I am hard pressed to be able to identify any distinctive melody or tune between one song and all their others.

I like this CD better than their DESTROY ALL ASTRO MEN (LIVE) (which does NOT sound live at all, BTW), simply because the sound bites on IS IT...MAN OR ASTRO-MAN are mixed closer to the same volume as the music, where as on DESTROY ALL ASTRO MEN the sound bites are quieter in volume and you have to strain to hear them unless you have the volume cranked up loud, which I can't do when I'm at work. Otherwise, I can't tell the difference between the two CDs, so you might as well buy this one, which is a little better.

Surf music, like punk and ska, is a very limited genre and most will end up getting annoyed and thinking that the music sounds too much the same. These are the same people who inexplicably hate Creed because 'all the songs sound the same', not because its bad. But if you like old Sci-Fi movies and or Mystery Science Theater 3000 (which Man or Astroman wrote the theme music for) then you will at listen enjoy a listen or two of any of Man or Astroman's stuff. Almost every track opens with some music or phrase from an old sci-fi movie. It's good stuff but can, admittedly, get a bit old after too many repeated listenings.

I had been missing this one for a long time. It never seemed to show up at my local music store. It was worth the effort to seek it out on line. This is not a half formed album. They are Man or Astroman from the first cut onward. If you groove on this band you must have this album. Sci-fi surf rock at its finest.
If you like this band I highly reccomend this CD by Los Straitjackets:
¡Viva!

I enjoy surf music yet, it's a pretty over simplified genre.

How much can you do with it?

You can up the ante with wild guitar antics (but that may take away from the melody), do interesting covers (that gets lame) or do what this group did. They attached a mysterious aura to the band (not providing information on who's in the band) and mixing in entertaining sci fi movie sound bytes. They took organic surf music and transcended it into sci fi, outerspace alien inspired...uh...stuff.

Working in the same B-movie, sci-fi vein as Devo, Man or Astro-Man? has married this junk-culture appetite to the surf instrumental genre with the help of samples from movies, commercials, and even (on "Invasion of the Dragonmen") an album of Spider-Man stories. Well-chosen samples and excellent surf compositions make this a must-own album.

My favorite song on this disc in Nitrous Burnout - this is played often. I think they've got better discs out there but still this is classic surf and punk with lotsa energy!

Not the best Man or Astroman CD, but certainly a good one!

Yet another carbon-copy Man Or Astroman album. This band is quite prolific, and this album, while certainly not a bad one, will suffice as the MoA album of your choice. The band can play with a lot of energy, and they've always been tight, but the pitfalls still exist: lack of variety in tempos and keys, the one-song-represents-the-whole stigma, and of course, the pretentious TV-spacemen schtick, which is getting pretty old at this point. I would suggest, as an alternative, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, a Canadian instrumental/surf band with far more variety, whose creativity is stronger on the musical side, rather than the image. Not a bad record, this one, albeit generic, been done before, and been done better.