62 Miles From Space - Time Shifts EP

by Adrian Janes

published: 2 / 10 / 2017

Label: Mega Dodo
Format: CDS

intro

Moscow-based Internet collaborators 62 Miles From Space take off to discover a psychedelic past in the present

The title track of ‘Time Shifts’ immediately immerses you in a late 1960's reverie, a magpie assemblage of organ, electric piano, wah-wah guitar and crystalline vocals, its gorgeous mellowness more of a gentle nudge towards the past than an abrupt shift. But it is true that much of what 62 Miles From Space offer here largely resembles transmissions from approximately 1967-74, like a pair of latter-day Walter Schirras (an astronaut who claimed to hear a broadcast of old records while in space). The faster rhythm and alternating organ and synth lines of ‘The Scope’ make for an appropriately kosmische sound – if this wasn’t already an EP, this is the track that would serve best as an earworm(hole) single. ‘Outside’ is a return to a more meditative mood, a gentle blend of keyboards and acoustic guitar, with scrambled vocals that give a nod to ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’. For no apparent reason, the last track is called ‘Bad Actors’. It combines a harpsichord-like keyboard, a comparatively spikier and more ancient tone to those used elsewhere, with that psychedelic staple the mellotron flute. Pleasant enough, it doesn’t linger too long in the memory. Interestingly, although ‘Time Shifts’ has decades-old musical roots, its creation by Neil Davidson (samples, programming) and Roman Kutnov (guitar, vocals), couldn’t have happened at any other time but the 21st century. For though they both live in Moscow, their collaboration is effected entirely via the Internet. Apart from this EP being an enjoyable listen, the compliment it best deserves is to say there’s little or no way to detect that this isn’t a band who have worked physically together and honed their mutual understanding IRL.