Public Service Broadcasting: The Race For Space (Test Card Recordings)
If they weren't actually real, Public Service Broadcasting are the sort of band you could imagine being dreamed up as a joke in an editorial meeting of The Chap Magazine. But real they certainly are. A duo, they consist of a bowtie-wearing Londoner called J Willgoose Esq and a musical partner who goes only by the name Wrigglesworth. This is nerd rock with knobs on - the knobs in question here being the ones with which the exceedingly analogue space missions of the mid-20th century were controlled.
In collaboration with the British Film Institute, PBS have mined archive recordings of the era, both Soviet and American, and created a concept album which overlays their own very varied compositions - Kraftwerk-style motorik, funk workouts, post-rock soundscapes - with samples of disembodied and dispassionate mission control voices.
Not everything works. But when it does it's gripping: best of all is The Other Side, which uses real-time audio from the Apollo Eight mission, with Houston control preparing for a loss of contact as the rocket travels behind the moon. "There is certainly a great deal of anxiety at this moment," says a voice over a quietly pulsing electro beat. Two minutes later: "Houston, this is Apollo Eight. We read you loud and clear". You almost want to cheer.
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