Albums of 2015 #3 Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space

Here are the 5 essential things you need to know about Public Service Broadcasting’s Race For Space album, our third favourite record of 2015.

1. It’s a concept album and the concept is the US-Soviet space race of the late 50’s to early 70’s.

2. Thematically there are links to the ideas presented on the bands tune Everest – that of human endeavour and man’s desire to attain that which has been unattainable.

3. If you haven’t yet heard what Public Broadcasting do, this is a fine introduction. The band mix archive vocal samples, this time taken from the astronauts themselves in space as well as the control desk on earth, together with music. It’s a very visual album. There are no traditional songs as such, the closest you get to that is some ethereal atmospheric warbling from The Smoke Fairies as guest vocalists on one track, but it bears a closer relationship to film soundtracks.

4. The music fits the ambience of space perfectly – from the suspenseful The Other Side  where Apollo 8 orbits the moon and loses radio contact through to the controlled hyperactivity of the control room on Go!

5. It’s bloody marvellous, weirdly emotional and as far as 2015 releases go, unique.

Public Service Broadcasting - Go!