Union Wireless - Saturn Ascension Experiments

Elefant Records - LP

1996, Spain

Alternative / Post-Rock / Krautrock

I wish someone gave me a CD of Saturn Ascension Experiments when I was 14; that was exactly the kind of music I was hoping to stumble across when I needed to soundtrack the turmoils of my teenage self. Most of the songs in Tony Hawk Pro Skater were a little too upbeat & punkish for ears trained on Pink Floyd's albums. But no, I was denied access to this galaxy of slowcore and stoner stuff, and would have to wait a few more years before I eventually came across an album of CAN, and even longer before I finally got to hear the kind of hypnotic loops of 1990's sludge rock I've been waiting all my teenage years to hear.

Let's be honest, some of the singing is not on point on a couple of songs, and I think it's a problem a lot of these space rock / sludge rock acts have: a bad singer. Not everyone can be Jason Pierce. Fortunately enough, it seems that Union Wireless might have been aware of it - at least, on a subconscious level - as a large part of the album is instrumental. Instrumental tracks like "Grasshoppers" or "Honey" are as cool as nagging sludge rock can get, and the over 9 minute-long "Flame Out" and "Now Time Styling", on which the singer keeps a low profile are two solid pieces of that trippy mid-1990's rock to slowly wobble to. (VG+/VG+)