Customer Reviews

Space Box: 1970 & Beyond, Space, Krautrock & Acid Trips

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

 

 

When I discovered "Space Box" at amazon.com I had two completely opposite reviews staring me in the face. One said it was garbage and the other said it was great. I decided to take a chance, since it was priced so economically. Boy, am I glad I did! If you like such artists as Helios Creed, Cluster, Chrome, Hawkwind and Faust, snag this one right now. Listen to these CD's a couple of times and you're liable to find yourself dialing up a few of your old friends in search of a handful of tabs! Get out your synchro-energizer and let the likes of Guru Guru and Amon Duul II take you on a little departure from our world. Actually, better make that a little departure from our galaxy! So, you ask, do I like "Space Box"? Get real. I don't like it. I love it! If you don't scarf up this set now, don't come crying to me later about how you have to shell out $50 to get it from some used CD store. I'll only say "I told you so".

I had only heard of a few of these bands even though I've listened to a lot of progressive rock over the years. And lately "Krautrock" has started to become a bit of a thing on my wonderful local radio station so I decided to take a chance and get this CD to start delving deeper into the European rock world. Let me just say there isn't a bad moment on this 3 CD compilation. And the selection & order of the tracks is particularly well done. This is one 3 CD set I can actually listen to straight through. There's enough variety to avoid tedium or monotony. It's kind of like listening to a 3+ hour radio show by your most knowledgable college DJ with a seriously obscure record collection. One day I hope to own at least a few of the CD's these tracks were culled from. Great purchase. Great Price. Great music. One ommision would be some Magma but you can find that on the Net easily nowadays. Bong hits all around, Dude.

While some material on this cd is quite good (Hawkwind, Cluster, Harmonia, the older stuff) the tracks by most of the newer bands are just plain silly, uninventive shlock that makes for filler. Try a Faust or Can album, or some Fripp/Eno stuff before wasting time on this one. The worst part is that the box is so cheesy, not to mention the typos (the worst being the exclusion of song 6 on cd 2 in the track listing -- come on, cleopatra, don't you hire someone to check these things?)

When I first got this fantastic 3-CD collection, I believe that I, personally contacted the label, Cleopatra to tell them just HOW MUCH I like, no make that nearly worship 'Space Box...'. When I first received this release, I hadn't even heard of most of the 36 different artists. In the CD booklet, they let you know the address of most of the artists so that interested parties can contact the bands themselves to find out more. I've done it and THANKS to 'Space Box...' I'm actually in touch now with a few of the bands.Some of my favorites through out the three discs are Architectural Metaphor whose track "Brainticket" I simply cannot get enough of. Also really like Kluster's "22:09", Conrad Schnitzler's "Contrapuntal Interstellar" and Dark Matter's "Past Zero Time". So MANY cool tunes here, also liked the couple of Chrome cuts like the trend-setting "3rd From The Sun" and Helios Creed's eerie "Leaving The Body". Melting Euphoria has a non-lp never released tune on here, "In Aquarian Dream" which pretty much defines modern day space rock in itself. There are several Hawkwind and related tracks present, like the 12" version of "Valium 10", Nik Turner's recital of "Ten Seconds Of Forever", Michael Moorcock's "Time Center" and Harvey Bainbridge with "The Changing". Should mention that this was the place where I first discovered the bands Guru Guru, Faust, Harmonia and Porcupine Tree. Never has such an exclusive collection, like this has ever put me in touch with so many cool bands. Just about EVERY one of the 36 cuts did it for me. Consider the 'Space Box...' in a sense sort of the krautrock sacred scrolls.

So deep that it's almost impossible to come up with a box that spans three decades and covers a topic as broad and diffuse as "space" music. Nevertheless, this is a very fine overview of major contributors to the music genre that involves gurgling synthesizers, repetitive rhythmic patterns, and weird sounds in general. If your acquaintance with this type of music goes no further than Pink Floyd's Meddle or Kraftwerk's Autobahn, this is a fine place for further exploration. I have an extensive collection of music, and still much of this is new to me, such as the Gong sound collage that isn't on any of my many Gong albums.

I was pretty disappointed with a lot of the tunes on this box set: many sound like sound checks or rehearsal space jams that go on a lot longer than they should. There are a few good tracks sprinked throughout. Alien Panetscapes is a standout - but I played bass with this group for a few months (not on this lineup) so I am biased ;-).

For some mind expanding sounds:

space rock:
Gong
Hawkwind
Ozric Tentacles (sp?)
Alien Panetscapes

Electronica from the 60's and beyond (academic sound):
Ilhan Mimaroglu - Wings of the Delerious Demon
Morton Subotnick
Pauline Oliveros
Milton Babbitt - Philomel

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