Public Service Broadcasting: The Race for Space | Album Review

The Race for Space
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Artist: Public Service Broadcasting
Genre: Electronic
Label: Test Card Recordings

We have more than some time for Public Service Broadcasting (aka musician Wrigglesworth and former BBC World Service producer John Samuelso), mainly because their 2013 debut album, Inform-Educate-Entertain, was the perfect blend of mellow electronica, pulsing beats, found sounds from radio broadcasts, and archive samples from old public information films. For the follow-up, the pair highlight – chronologically, song by song – the rivalry between the USSR and USA to put the first man on the Moon. It's all nicely "out there", with music channelling Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin, and excerpts from JFK speeches and talk between US astronauts and Nasa. An interesting exercise in sound collage, but whether you'd want to listen to it more than a few times is debatable. publicservicebroadcasting.net

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in popular culture