Tomorrowland >> Astronauts report it feels good

\\\\\\ Tomorrowland - "Kepler Planet Harmonies" //////

\\\ (Darla Records, 1997) ///

This is a case where everything just came together perfectly: the music, the band name (a "theme land" at Disney's Epcot Center), the album name (Stereoscopic Soundwaves), the cover art.  I received this CD in '97 as a subscriber to Darla Records' mailorder-only "Bliss Out" series of post-rock / ambient / electronic / dream pop recordings.  I got the first 12 in the series, since I got a one-year subscription... one disc per month.  See the full list here.  Alternative Press magazine, to which I subscribed, and which was pretty much my bible at the time, gave this disc 4 out of 5 fingers (stars).  Their review said of this track: "The hum travels onward into the closing space behemoth, 'Kepler Planet Harmonies,' gathering electromagnetic barnacles as a digitally looped quartet of synth tones bounce off the satellites.  Radio waves get caught in the crossfire and seep in through spackled corners: the updated ambient theme to The Outer Limits."  Michigan was the center of the lo-fi space-rock universe in the mid-'90s, with Windy & Carl, Tomorrowland, Auburn Lull, Füxa, Asha Vida, Monaural, Five Way Mirror, and the whole Burnt Hair Records roster going all interplanetary like it was Germany ca. 1974, or Neptune ca. 3974.

This just might be my favorite ambient track ever, and it's probably the one that I'd play in order to indoctrinate an ambient newbie.  I feel this one is set apart by its vast feel, due to running the synth parts through lots of delay, creating a more layered and "tingly" or "alive" feel than in typical ambient music.  In other words, I think it has more of a "neon" feel than a "pastel" one, if one considers that most ambient music could be described as "pastel" in sound/feel/coloration.  An unnervingly sinister bass drone comes in at about the 2-minute mark, which changes the complexion of the whole thing, and then a little later on, if you listen closely enough (or, uh, far-ly enough), it sounds like a new track is being born out of the main one!  Epic, I know... but that's how my mind hears it, and I don't even do drugs.  At a certain point, you have the tingly high synths, the bass drone, and a new part that comes in, making for a triple-layered creation.  It later gets winnowed down to a high, flute-like drone and a quieter bass drone, making for an extremely eerie finale which is likely inspired by Tangerine Dream's "Sequent C'".  My only problem is the distracting tape hiss; maybe one day, some label will give this album the deluxe remastered red carpet treatment it deserves, and remove the hiss.

Terrific image showing all three of Johannes Kepler's planetary laws; borrowed from Vleeptron Z

The title of this post is a bit of dialogue said during the famous Apollo 11 mission.  (Yes, this is the same mission in which Neil Armstrong said "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.")  It was utilized as one of the most brilliant samples ever in a few tracks on The Orb's super-essential debut album The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld in 1991.  (Used in "Supernova At The End Of The Universe" and "Back Side Of The Moon".)  Tomorrowland seem to have broken up with no fanfare; I wonder if Disney was pressuring them to change their name.
Speaking of music named after Epcot references, check out Moonshake's propulsive 1992 behemoth "Spaceship Earth" from 1992, and Trans Am's 1999 album Future World (feat. the barnstorming title track).

'Member last month when I said I'd try to go a month without a microwave after blowing mine up?  Last week I got a new one, on April 9th in fact, the exact one month anniversary.

Planets with similar climates: Tangerine Dream - "Phaedra" (1974), Troum - "Sigqan Pt. 2" (2003), Biosphere - "Chukhung" (1997), Rapoon - "A Softer Light" (1997), Pteranodon - "Adrift" (2001).