Space Rock Veterans Spirits Burning, led by the indefatigable Don Falcone, continue gearing up for the release of An Alien Heat with a new single, released today, the mighty “To Steal A Space Traveller.”
Falcone says,“Every Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock album has a couple of songs that are more frenetic and need to capture the theatrical chaos and movement of the scene. ‘To Steal A Space Traveller’ is one such piece. Here, the lyrics trace how the male lead of Mike’s end-of-time story steals an alien from a menagerie so that he can trade him for the story’s 19th century female lead. It’s an absurd time written in wonderful language.”
As always, the track abounds with guest stars, as Falcone explains. “The crew for the song is quite indicative of the album’s collaborations and connectivity. Blue Öyster Cult founder Albert Bouchard transcribed Mike’s text from the book and brought in his brother Joe Bouchard to sing lead.
“I brought in a number of UK Spirits Burning contributors. That includes Ade Shaw, the bassist for Hawkwind the first time I saw the band live, his successor Harvey Bainbridge, here doing keys, and Groundhogs drummer Ken Pustelnik. I actually got to meet both Harvey and Ken on two different trips to the UK.”
Joe Bouchard’s vocals are especially noteworthy. Falcone continues, “I got the feeling that when there was something odd to sing, Albert [Bouchard] immediately thought of his brother. And Joe would say ‘yes.’ As the alien is being kidnapped, and is told it is for love, the alien says ‘For greater (skree skree skree) love, as we (roar), Say on our planet, hath (skree skree), No man’s (skree) ryof, chio, lar, oof.’ Realizing his translator is faulty, he adds: ‘It must be untranslatable.'”
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/tostealaspacetraveller
Released on October 16 on blue vinyl and CD, An Alien Heat is a musical reimagining of the first book in Moorcock’s Dancers At The End Of Time trilogy, itself the inspiration behind four Spirits Burning albums.
Having already brought the remainder of that trilogy, The Hollow Lands and The End Of All Songs, to shimmering life on Cleopatra’s Purple Pyramid imprint, Moorcock and Spirits Burning go all out on this first chapter. Guests elsewhere on the album include further Hawkwind family members Mick Slattery and Bridget Wishart, and Blue Öyster Cult’s Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and Richie Castellano.
The result, has to be one of the most remarkable, and enthralling musical adaptations of any book – let alone a trilogy as powerful as this.
The Dancers at the End of Time, after all is (“among many other things”), what Moorcock describes as his “homage to the fin-de-siecle and its writers and artists. I wanted to set a story at the end of the world which was not a tragic apocalypse but a funny acceptance.
“By using the language of Wilde and his circle, I also paid tribute to their contemporary H.G.Wells, who wrote The Time Machine and the funny and existentialist History of Mr Polly.
“I wanted to entertain and write on a serious subject at the same time.”
Spirits Burning capture all of that… and more!
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=spirits+burning+%26+michael+moorcock+an+alien+heat
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/analienheat
Track listing
1. Hothouse Flowers
2. Geronimo
3. Soirée Of Fire (CD ONLY)
4. In The Future
5. Doomed
6. Fall In Love
7. Any Particular Interest (CD ONLY)
8. Dark Dominion (CD ONLY)
9. Seven Finger Solution (CD ONLY)
10. To Steal A Space Traveller (CD ONLY)
11. Virtue & Mrs. Amelia Underwood
12. Learning The Art
13. Back To 1896 (CD ONLY)
14. Quest For Bromley
15. Thank You For The Fog
16. Old Friends With New Faces (CD ONLY)
