gts183 “reddish”
Take a left at Phobos, if you hit an asteroid you’ve gone too far.
01-01 Jack Lancaster & Robin Lumley – Marscape 101 – Take-Off (1976)
— anything you blow into, that’s Lancaster. All keyboards by Lumley, and the drums here are by Philip David Charles Collins, whose non-posh name is Phil, here taking on a side gig after the Genesis album A Trick Of The Tail.
01-02 Jack Lancaster & Robin Lumley – Marscape 102 – Sail On Solar Winds (1976)
01-03 Yuri Gagarin – 2014-05-01 Ungdomshuset, Dødsmaskinen, København Denmark 01 – First Orbit (2014)
— caught here touring in support of their self-titled first disc, Yuri is the stage name of band leader Linus Andersson. This Swedish band rolled out onto stage with a pair of large, intimidating Soviet-era synthesizers on this, the opening night of a Danish music festival called Heavy Days In Doomtown III.
01-04 Joe Satriani – The Elephants Of Mars 05 – Tension And Release (2022)
— mostly known as a solo guitarist, Joe was fleetingly a member of Deep Purple, and the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar. By my unofficial count, Satriani has put out 22 solo albums, this one his latest, a double LP in the vinyl version.
01-05 Moksha – Moksha 205 – Martian Wildlife (1989)
— track #5 on the 2nd disc of the 2002 double-CD re-issue of an original cassette released in 1989. Bandmates “Quiller” and “Seaweed” met through the Gong Appreciation Society at Cambridge in 1983. A new album “Moksha 2” was announced… in 2004. No sign of it yet, stay tuned.
02-01 Anekdoten – Progfest ’94 204 – Mars (1995)
— this Progfest was November 1994 in Los Angeles. The Swedish band played 11 songs, the encore being a cover of King Crimson’s “Starless”.
02-02 Steve Stevens – Memory Crash 04 – Water On Ares (2008)
— Stevens gets around to releasing a solo album about every ten years, this is from his 3rd. Who has the time, when he’s playing with folks as diverse as Tony Levin, Michael Jackson, Billy Idol and Joni Mitchell? He won his Grammy for the soundtrack to the film Top Gun.
02-03 Øresund Space Collective – The Black Tomato 06 – The Black Tomato Part I (2007)
— half from Denmark, half from Sweden, with some Yanks sprinkled in, love saying the drummer’s name: Søren Hvilsby. 3rd studio album, but they have a plethora of live shows on the ‘net for free. All three parts of “The Black Tomato” run 32 minutes, but had to play some here, in honor of the film “The Martian” where Matt Damon survives on the Red Planet by growing vegetables in the Martian soil, fertilized with his own poop.
02-04 On The Virg – Serious Young Insects 05 – Pyramids On Mars (1999)
— one and only album from Australian/American quartet headed up by drummer Virgil Donati. 6:11 here, but playing live, this tune got expanded to 13 minutes.
03-01 Solaris – Marsbéli Krónikák 101 – Marsbéli Krónikák I (The Martian Chronicles I) (1984)
— nice to hear some real flute in rock, this Hungarian band started in 1980 but here’s their first album from ’84. Still at it, the band’s most recent studio album is from 2024: Marsbéli Krónikák III.
03-02 Solaris – Marsbéli Krónikák 102 – Marsbéli Krónikák II-III (The Martian Chronicles II-III) (1984)
— different emphases of instrumentation across the six parts played here, but there is a “theme” which emerges, eventually voiced by every piece of the equipment.
03-03 Solaris – Marsbéli Krónikák 103 – Marsbéli Krónikák IV-VI (The Martian Chronicles IV-VI) (1984)
— the band’s name comes from a Soviet scifi film from about 55 years ago which is absolutely excellent. It was remade by Hollywood some years ago, but tragically starring George Clooney, it flopped. Don’t let that deter you, seek out the original and watch it. Even with subtitles, it is a great movie.
03-04 Fonya – Wanderers Of The Neverending Night 04 – Mars (1992)
— out of Portland, Maine, Chris Fournier (pronounced Fonya?) recorded this debut album during his Junior year at college, playing all the music here. His brother Phil did vocals (but not on this track).
04-01 Tritonus – Between The Universes 102 – Mars Detection (1976)
— led by keyboardist Peter Seiler, this is off the German trio’s second album. First self-titled album received dubious praise for ‘not sounding as German’ but has a nutso cover of “Lady Madonna”. The band called it quits in ’79, “due to apathy from record companies”.
04-02 Space Mirrors – Memories Of The Future 11 – Opa-Loka/Uncle Sam’s On Mars (2006)
— a cover of one by Hawkwind, fitting because the band’s Moog is by Hawkwind’s synthesizeist. Keys and drums here by Alisa Coral from far eastern Europe, and Australian Michael Blackman does the string stuff. Vocals on this one, off their 2nd album, are done by a guy who calls himself “Metatron”.
04-03 Tuber – Tuber 04 – Attack From Mars (2012)
— this debut disc has only five songs, thus an “EP”, but at 41 minutes, it’s really album-length. Started as a 3-piece for this one, then later added a 4th to the band for their subsequent albums. They hail from the palindromic town of Serres, which is in Greece.
… and a bonus track…
05-01 The Underground Railroad – Through And Through 05 – Mars (2000)
— debut disc from a project begun by Kurt Rongey (keyboards) and Bill Pohl (guitar) of Fort Worth, Texas, who wanted to form a band that “sounds like Genesis”. Interior art for their 2nd and final album, done by Bill’s brother Philip Pohl.