Customer Reviews

Spectrum of Infinite Scale

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

 

 

this is by far my least favorite astro-album. MOAM started a gradual transition away from "space surf rock" toward more offbeat and noisy music with the "technetium" album, and may have gone a bit too far this time. "Technetium" is an amazing album, "EEVIAC" is good, but this one just goes too far into the "strange noises" for my tastes. i mean, really, there's a track that's nothing but the buzzing of a dot-matrix printer! there are very few tracks on this album that seem to be more than "organized noise".

but hey, they're free to experiment, and i'll be buying their next effort the day it comes out. but as it stands, I can't recommend this particular album even to seasoned MOAM fans, much less people looking for an introduction to the band. (for that, you need "Project Infinity" or "Experiment Zero")

Honestly, it took me a while to catch up... I had been having fun with the old surf rock of Man or Astro Man for a while, listening to them when space was more a theme, and the music was just surf. When I skipped a few albums (missing the whole evolution) I was dismayed-- where was my surf rock?

And a lot of people never get past that... so, to them: too bad. Man or Astro Man already released their normal-ish surf bands with fifties movie camp, and I love those disks, and they're not going away. If that's what you want, listen to the old albums.

This band has stepped up into the business of creating universes between two speakers. It's not about guitar riffs anymore... it's about sound. There's lots of synths in here, lots of effects. Man or Astro Man has gone to the moon and the retro-heads are eating their dust and choking on the taste.

Our favorite Astromen have released an album that outpaces Radiohead in the sonic sculpture world. If you want the past, go buy a Ventures compilation. If you want the future, buy Spectrum of Infinite Scale.

Begin transmission//// Throughout most of the 90's, we kept hearing how innovative and creative artists like Trent Reznor and Beck where and how they were the future of music. They're decent, to be sure, but compared to Man Or Astro-Man?, they may as well be doing Styx covers. Ahh, yes, Man Or Astro-Man? -- still delivering their sci-fi wasabi instrumentals to earthlings from the far reaches of the galaxy. A Spectrum Of Infinte Scale is a unique departure point for the band. Almost completely gone are the vintage sci-fi movie samples and the harsh, screeching sonic aggression of 1999's Eeviac. The result: an even-keeled, almost mature sounding record, particularly compared to their earlier offerings like the sci-fi surf terror of Destroy All Astro-Men! A Spectrum of Infinite Scale is almost not as much fun (Bring back the samples!), but it's still a unique space warp experience. Come on, where else can you hear someone make music out of a dot matrix printer? And the song titles alone are making Man Or Astro-Man? CDs a must have. In the 80s, we chuckled at song titles from The Smiths. In the new millennium , there's Man Or Astro-Man? with "Obligatory Part 2 Song In Which There Is No Presently Existing Part 1, Nor The Plans To Make One" or... well, just look at the titles above yourself. So, if you're really into great, twisted, experimental instrumental music, or you're watching the Sci-Fi Channel right now, or you're a homesick visitor from another planet, you'll enjoy this album. End transmission/////////////

Listening to this album for the first time reminded me of sitting through science class in 7th grade. I was in the mood to play and run around and found it hard to focus on what was being tought. It was boring and made little sense. But as time went on, little bits of information made their way into my head and stuck, and started to get me interested. Soon I was happily and eagerly participating in experiments and ace-ing my tests.

This is not the wild and crazy Astromen of yore. If you are still hoping they'll make another "Destroy All Astro-Men" then you might not dig this new...experiment. This is not to say that there is no surf elements however. There is still plenty of the Astroman sound throughout, but things have gotten quite a bit more technical. They have, in a way, picked up where they left off with last year's excellent E.E.V.I.A.C. Except now they have reached the next "level". Gone are the occasional "singing" songs. Gone are the samples from old sci-fi B-movies. What remains is an album that is a pure audiofile's treat. Tight guitar and drums, theramin, all produced expertly by Steve Albini. The only "song" I have to skip is track 11, "A Simple Text File". It's not because it's a bad song...but, well, you'll know whern you hear it. I will give that track credit by saying it's original though.

Man or Astro Man has grown as a band. It is very apparent that they are striving to remain fresh and not keep doing the same old space-surf stuff over and over again, which is a great thing. For some bands this spells disaster, but for Man or Astro Man, it proves they will remain an interesting band for years to come. What we must realize though, is that this current music by MOAM is just getting us ready for their "Next Phase" music. Here is a quote from the band that says it best...

"Our records in the future are so incredibly alien and innovative, we've had to travel back to our present time to record an evolutionary bridge between contemporary harmonic patterns and the mind-shattering tones and structures of the Astro-Men's 21st century "Next Phase" records. If an Earth human heard one of the Next Phase records today, he or she would die. Only by exposing the entire population of the Earth to intermediary sonic structures can we, as Man or Astro-man? stop harmonic trauma from killing the entire human race."

Yes, it is up to Man or Astro Man? to save us all, and so far they are doing a damn fine job.

When i first purchased this album I was in dismay on how it succeeded in leaving me in withdrawl from Man or Astro-Man. After listening to this album for a second time i grew some liking to a few tracks, and now i have found it to be an entertaining album, although it lacked the certain appeal that Man or Astro-Man has had in the past, i do believe that this is an exceptional album but in reality Man or Astro-Man isn't much without Starcrunch and the great albums produced by these fellows will most certainly never equal the "Project Infinity" and "Experiment Zero" days. Then again, I could be wrong.

With the loss of fantastic guitarist Brian Causey, Man Or Astroman was faced with a great challenge to keep up the quality recording output they've issued over the years. The first effort by the new band, EEVIAC, wasn't a very solid release, but this new record is a very satisying rock record, just enough like the old Man Or Astroman to make it fair to use the name, but more powerful and less surfy. The recording quality exceeds other recent MOAM records like Made From Technetium & EEVIAC, as they've once again teamed up with Steve Albini, who put to tape MOAM's finest work, Experiment Zero. I highly recommend Spectrum Of Infinite Scale.

The nod to "2001" on the cover of their lastest seems to really grasp MOAM's yearning to evolve and move forward. Although I have loved the band from its very beginning, I was always concerned about how they could keep the surf-punk formula going. Coupled with the loss of original guitarist Starcrunch, I was beginning to lose hope and believe that they were going to to keep putting sub-par, carbon copy albums. However their last two records have given me faith that perhaps they haven't even reached their full potential. This is a great record, full of melodies (their best to date), winding song structures, noise, great drumming and even a dot matrix printer (while not for the less-adventerous listeners, it does a remarkable job doubling as an instrument). They have managed to keep what made them so good while realizing they had to move on to keep from drowning in cookie-cutter retro surf tunes of the past.

Different. I liked the new sound and the more than necessary track names. Nice cover art as well. Go science!

the weirder they get/the better they are. i hated this album at first. but after forcing myself to listen to it over and over, it is now my favorite. seeing them pull it off live really helped too. MOAM, this was a great one. Now it's time to put out another studio album that is not old material!

The follow-up to 1999's excellent "EEVIAC" finds Man or Astro-Man? exploring new areas of space and music without leaving past influences and styles behind. Heavy, aggressive rhythms propel tunes like "Two Mile" while Joe Meek influenced lead guitar lines create dreamy atmospheres on the odd, angular "Curious Constructs". Guitarist Trace Reading's knack for melody is more apparent on "Spectrum..." than ever before and Birdstuff's drumming (beautifully recorded by Steve Albini) is further proof that he's own of the best in the business (of rock and roll drums, that is). Don't let the odd, long, and crytic song titles or the ambiguous artwork be a put-off - "A Spectrum of Infinite Scale" is a terrific effort from Man or Astro-Man?, possibly one of the best records of 2000, and almost sure to be ignored by the mainstream music press.