THE SPACEMAN TRILOGY
Come With Us
(575080 Records DK)
By Mike O’Cull www.mikeocull.com
The Spaceman Trilogy is a wildly creative avant-garde rock and roll outfit from California that makes music capable of warping and expanding even the most tightly-wrapped minds in existence. The band’s latest effort is the high-concept release Come With Us, a triumphantly artistic set of new songs about an extraterrestrial journey in the company of real, live aliens that will reel you in and make you believe. The group keeps much of its personal information under wraps, which only adds to the mystique the tracks here create and avoids the identity politics so common in this music game of ours.
The album begins with the nine-minute “Spaceman Trilogy Origin Story,” which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an atmospheric narrative detailing the story of how the band encountered a crew of little green space-folks and their flying machine. The aliens seemed to be chill and our humans didn’t want to appear rude so they hung out. Conversation ensued and the aliens invited our humans to travel along with them. All of this is being told to us over a pulsating, undulating sonic exploration that ebbs and flows like consciousness. This flows into “Last Day Of Earth,” a slow-burner built on a deliciously hollowed-out clean guitar part that works itself into the brain and takes up residence.
The creatively interpretive story proceeds from there through differing degrees of space-rock that detail The Spaceman Trilogy’s galactic involvement with their new green pals. It’s easy to key in on the lyrical aspects of the record but the high-flying music the band puts down shines just as brightly as the words do. The trippy guitar work on “I’m A Leaf On The Wind, Watch How I...Ouch” is worth getting this set for all on its own. The band works masterfully with texture and vibe, proving their mettle and pulling us in bar by bar. “Danger! Danger!” keeps the magic going and rocks hard while relating the experience of being out there in the black with no return path in sight. Again, the guitar playing is interstellar and the entire group vibes as a single entity in a heavied-up Floydian mode.
By the time you reach the nearly 18-minute finale “I Left My Wallet On Alderaan,” you’ll be a believer in this story and in this band. The Spaceman Trilogy proves itself to be conceptual rockers of the highest order and flies in the face of the paper-thin music that’s drowning our planet. This is art for art’s sake that never panders to the idea of being commercial and predictable. It’s the kind of challenging, brilliant music that made careers in a better, vanished time. Now, it serves as a living example of how much can still be achieved by a small band of musicians who are dedicated to seeking greatness. No spoilers will be given today, so you’ll have to spin Come With Us for yourself and follow our heroes on their journey. The Spaceman Trilogy is doing the kind of work our world needs and you’d be a fool to let this album slip by you. Highly recommended.
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6SjktZw1YR5nz0u6OWf9EY?si=t7YLVhkESR-pNxmWXBF1og
