Space - The Best of

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 24 / 10 / 2009

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Review

While most people would list Daft Punk as the true French pioneers of electro dance music, there was in fact another duo that were doing that sort of thing a good while before them. ‘The Best of Space’ takes you on a journey through the French act's career, which began in 1977 and ended, four albums and twelve million album sales later, in 1981 What is more impressive is, while they are not remembered well now, how completely ahead of their time Space were. They sound like they should have been on the soundtrack to every Sci-Fi film made, yet this synth act always manage to go beyond the obvious. ‘Just Blue' is filled with strings and choir-like vocals and sounds like some sort of 'Songs of Praise' from outer space. ‘Deliverance’ also combines synths and a choir-like sound. It has an almost Queen-like feel to it. A piano underlies everything before funky keyboards and soulful female vocals burst into action making the song so multi-layered with so many things going on simultaneously that it is almost hard to keep up with at first. It is not often then I end up reviewing stuff which is more of an influence on household names than other household names. Upon listening to Space for the first time, it is, however, clear that the likes of Daft Punk and Justice must have listened to them on numerous occasions. With a real resurgence of electro music about these days, it is great to hear one of the true innovators of the first wave from all those years ago. ‘Robots’ and ‘Inner Voice’ sound so far ahead of their time that, while other bands of the era were either still trying to grasp the idea of punk or fumbling around trying to work out how to actually use synthesisers, Space seem to have had that all wrapped up before the 80’s really kicked in and fashion and style took a vacation from the world. This collection is a really fascinating insight into a band that have now long been overlooked. All the while, however, it is like a glimpse into the past via the future.

Track Listing:-

1 Magic Fly
2 Running In The City
3 Just Blue
4 Carry On Turn Me On
5 Tango In Space
6 Air Force
7 Prison
8 Flying Nightmare
9 Deliverance
10 Fasten Seat Belts
11 Symphony
12 Robbots
13 Inner Voices
14 Save Your Love For Me