The Moonlandingz have lurked as a creative ensemble since mid-2015 when they skulked onto the scene with their self-titled debut EP, since then they have washed in and out of the musical shores bringing their stench of psych-punk with them each time. Their latest effort prior to this album was 2016’s Black Hanz EP – a raucous affair that caught frontman Johnny Rocket (aka Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family) at his most unhinged and barbaric since Fat Whites’ 2015 effort Champagne Holocaust.
For those unfamiliar with The Moonlandingz, they exist predominately as the literal representation of the fictional band behind The Eccentronic Research Council’s third LP, Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine… I’m Your Biggest Fan. Johnny Rocket, the narcissist, the bloody, sticky frontman has become renowned for his role within The Moonlandingz, often arriving at live shows in little more than a codpiece and a frothing mouth of zeal. It is the liminal space in which the characters of The Moonlandingz exist that partially makes them so captivating – half real, half fictional – they are exactly the spike of danger and interest that the music industry needs these days.
From the opening march of ‘Vessels’ that carries a militaristic parade with it, Rocket’s voice holds the same cool croon that it posed on the Fat White Family material circa Songs For Our Mothers. The move back to previously released material on tracks two and three – ‘Sweet Saturn Mine’ and ‘Black Hanz’ – prove that when the tracks are surrounded by another nine accompanying cohorts, they become a lot stronger in the message they deliver. The menace of the former fits in with ‘Vessels’s brutish and apathetic attack and the rollocking nature of ‘Black Hanz’ sits closely with a track further down the line, ‘The Rabies Are Back’.
The drug-fuelled malice of ‘I.D.S’ sits Rocket’s slur flat in the middle of krautrock – his smoggy voice mixes in and meshes with the electronic sampling put forward by The Eccentronic Research Council. The track is a mucky throwback to early rave – the fictional band, once stalked by Maxine Peake (another chapter in the myth that is The Moonlandigz) and proves that they are on the money, even when they tamper with the stylistics of their lofi psych-scuzz.
Bringing along Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club for the recently released single ‘The Strangle of Anna’ adds a different element to the luridness that plagues the quartet. She plays into the cultish myth of The Moonlandingz a little further, her female presence adds a different angle and the drowzy view-from-within-the-K-hole video for the track emphasises the smutty post-party blues track. It’s a little Velvet Underground circa-Nico with a Johnny Rocket who is hell bent on oozing his inner Lux Interior.
‘Theme From Valhalla Dale’ turns the screw a little further, equally as seedy as the former track but putting forward a satanic death march, yet to be seen elsewhere on the album – shut your eyes tight and the psychedelic interlude casts you down Wonka’s tunnel. The game grows a lot more twisted from here: where the first half of the album was slightly tangible, ‘The Rabies Are Back’ is a carnivalesque celebration with Rocket hurling the chant: “What’s that? / The rabies are back / The rabies are back for good.”
Sean Lennon’s production duties twist Interplanetary Class Classics into a season of its own, it’s hard to pinpoint comparisons – from the barbaric ‘Neuf Du Pape’ to the midnight saunter of ‘Glory Hole’, the album never allows itself to be classed as one or the other, its shapeshifting nature is a downright marvel. The yelling of: “Everyone’s got a glory hole / Sigmund Freud had a glory hole” feels desperately relevant in a world which demands to be taken so seriously all the time.
As the album winds down on arguably one of the best tracks and another fine return to krautrock tendencies – ‘Lufthansa Man’, Rocket takes on a slightly Marc Bolan shade – his vocals reach higher ranges whilst keeping an air of cool around them. Final track on the album ‘This Cities Undone’ beckons at Yoko Ono to make her appearance. Her compliments of the group, recently stating them as the most important UK band, are testament to this track – her delayed yelps and cutting shriek of “get on with it!” at its climax leave you riled and throttled at the last minute.
The more The Moonlandingz fracture the norm on this, their debut effort, the better. Debasing all that is factual feels the most fitting accomplishment for a band trying to exist in 2017. Interplanetary Class Classics is a total celebration of the mad and inconceivable and, at this time, the inconceivable seems a hell of a lot more exciting than the tangible.
Tom Churchill
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