The Metalunas - X Minus One

Mark Brodie's specialty has been--more or less-- traditional instrumental guitar surfing music. Why mess with a good thing by adding neo-modern reinterpretations? X-MINUS-ONE is his 3rd album, and to date my fave of his. With The Metalunas he's plowing the same field as Man Or Astro-Man-- mixing guitar instros with 50's sci-fi space schlock. It's a fun mixture, and brings up memories of watching exciting (and often tacky) space films on Saturday afternoons. A few times on the album there are surprisingly long passages that could have come straight from even earlier RADIO shows, all adding to the effect. Among the highlights are "Shields Up!" (a cover of "Space Race" by The Hodads, also done by The Space Cossacks), "Blast Off!", and "Satellite Of Mystery", a quiet, moody piece that shows off Brodie's beautiful use of organ-- probably my favorite track here.

X-Minus-One 2. Blast Off! 3. Satellite Of Mystery 4. Enemy Aproaching 5. Shields Up! 6. Moon Relay 7. Interlude 8. It Came From The Nebula 9. Meteorite Mambo 10. Celluloio Planetoid 11. Jupiter Doo Dah 12. Twilight City 13. Ballistic Bikini

blastoff