By: Martyn Coppack
The Space Merchants: facebook bandcamp
Released on June 9, 2015 via AquaLamb Records
The Space Merchants is the name of a rather terrific sci-fi book written by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth (two rather terrific names in themselves). It is also the name of an intriguing (and no doubt terrific) book shop in London town which plies its trade on selling splendidly terrific science fiction to geeks far and wide. As these things always come in threes (and by now this review is surely starting to sound slightly Douglas Adams), there just so happens to be a band called The Space Merchants from Brooklyn, New York….and yes, they too are rather terrific.
Hoisting their space sails like some proverbial psychedelic mish-mash of The B52’s thrown in with a good old dollup of Tommy Lee Jones and Clint Eastwood in that rather ridiculous film about space cowboys, The Space Merchants glide by on a drift of music quite unlike much you have heard before. It’s a curious mix of the psychedelic, country, shoe-gaze and college rock but works so well due to its almost care-free attitude to delivering the songs and you can’t help fall for the wonderful charm inherent here.
The album is slightly top heavy with the first half being a much better proposition. It is here that you get the Western blues music of ‘One Cut Like The Moon’ which sounds like the Mamas and Papas getting deep down and dirty on one hell of a toke, the supremely catchy ‘Evil Itch’ which attacks every bone in your body with its thrill and the insanely good ‘Mainline The Sun’ which subsumes every psychedelic hook ever and throws it back at you in one simple melody. It’s a wonderful opening to an album.
‘Beatniks’ carries on the good work but then the album dips a little for the remaining songs although some balance is regained with the excellent ‘Where’s The Rest Of Life’ which ends. These are minor quibbles though as The Space Merchants have already proved their worth and for a good majority of this album they are untouchable in their swagger. They are…simply terrific.
If you want something a little different amongst all that purports to be psychedelic these days then you won’t go far wrong with this. Most definitely psych, it also has enough charm to appeal to a wider audience and this may very well be the key to why, when The Space Merchants are truly flying, that there music sounds so timeless and fun. Hitch a ride with these merchants, they’ll look after you and take you on a hell of a terrific trip.
