Man or Astro-man? – Beyond The Black Hole
(Estrus)

Okay, I’m about to make a broad generalization here, but if you’re a Man or Astro-man fan then I’m guessing you’re likely one of those obsessive completist record collector type people. And if you’re with me so far, then I’m guessing that one of your biggest pet peeves is probably the fact that their 7″ collection, “What Remains Inside A Black Hole” is damn hard to get a hold of.

Strangely, it seems like yesterday when I would see it gleaming back at me from store shelves everywhere. But you know, just about the time when I got around to actually wanting to buy it, it seemed to disappear off the face of the planet. Well, I guess what really happened is that it went out of print.

Lucky for me, the Astro-men would never leave their fans out in the cold. In my hour of need, MOA and Estrus Records have remastered and re-released this hard to find album in a slightly different form. It is entitled “Beyond The Black Hole”, and it features most (but not all) of the same tracks from “What Remains Inside A Black Hole”.

Of the 15 songs from the out of print version, 9 have resurfaced here, and 3 new ones have been thrown in with them.The general idea seems to be that they left out some of their older songs in favour of slightly newer material. Among the tracks left out are the live versions of Eric Estrotica and Squad Car (from their Man or Astro-man vs. Europe 7″), and also left out is “The Universe’s Only Intergalactic Radioactive Breakfast Bar”, which appeared on the “Captain Holojoy’s Space Diner 7″.

The new additions are from The Sounds Of Tomorrow 7″. They are “The Wayward Meteor”, “Green Blooded Love” (apparently a cover of a band called The Shatners), and “The Powerful Fully-Transistorized Dick Tracy Two-Way Wrist Radio”, which is a great cover of the Dick Tracy theme song that just happens to have a really long alternate title.

When regarded as a stand-alone album, “Beyond The Black Hole” works quite well, perhaps better than “What Remains Inside…”. The songs were all recorded between 1993 and 1996, which is before Man or Astro-man started getting experimental and more electronic, but also well after they had found their niche and learned to play their instruments with precision. These songs are purely guitar-driven instrumental surf rock, with lots of b-movie sound clips interspersed. This album has some classic MOA songs that you can’t get anywhere else, such as the spasmodic “Rovers”, the catchy “Surf Terror”, and one of my personal favourites, the sombre “24 Hours”. Heck, they’re all good!

If you don’t own “What Remains Inside A Black Hole” (like myself), then this is a must buy.However, if you already own “What Remains Inside…” then it may not be necessary to buy this again, unless you’re one of those nerdy completists… which you probably are. In which case, you probably already bought it, and you probably didn’t need to waste your time reading this review, now did you? — Sean