Nagamatzu - Space Shuttle Shuffle flac mp3 download

Their first vinyl release & every bit as good as the material released on their cassette albums. Side one opens with “Lift Off” begins with a Space Program countdown over which the group play a fastish, moving piece of music, with much repeated sampled voice and bass which seems to change sound as the track progresses. It perhaps strides between a cleaned-up JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER at their most interesting. Simplistic but ever-changing, this is perhaps the most Up-Front track I have heard from them. "Schlaggefahr" follows this fading in dramatically like something off “Between Intimacy And Elsewhere", then picks up it’s tempo and runs, becoming their most ‘Rocky’ piece yet, veering even closer to JOY DIVISION with a noisy, textured guitar and that firm, reliant bassline. It finally fades into a drifting, sustained wave of feedback and sound. Side two has just one track on it, entitled “The Sunlight Home”, a slow atmospheric piece reminding one more of the type of instrumental the COCTEAU TWINS put onto the ‘B’ sides of records & forgot about - the kind of thing I always preferred by them. It has a massive sound to it, full of distance and dimension, with interesting percussion, atmospheric sounds used subtly and NAGAMATZU’s usual complex constructions which sound so simple. I feel this is a group you either like or do not like. I for one could listen to this material at least once a day. Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.