(This is the best review EVER!)

Joined: Wed, Nov 10, 2004
Posts: 59
Location: London UK
Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 6:24 pm
Subject: Steve Gilmore Reviews: Nigel Potter - Spaceflight Part 1   

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Artist: Nigel Potter
Title: Spaceflight Part 1: Let There Be Light
Link: here OR Download
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I first met Nigel a while ago when we found some mutual acqaintances; he found out about my sordid back story and put me in touch with a project I was very interested in being a part of. Michael Moorcock is a friend of mine who I was involved with back in the early '70's whose one and only record has gone on to become something of an internet oddity. Both of us were also inextricably linked to the whole Hawkwind scene of the time, and that has always gathered its fair share of fanatics (oops, I mean fans) so it was inevitable that I would take up Nigels suggestion that I get involved with a Birthday soundscape for Mike's 6(mumble) birthday.

Not only is Nigel a thoughful, decent guy, a Hawkwind (read:space rock) freak butobviously he's also completely tonto.

Either that or the aliens have taken over his brain.

Seriously, though I lived through the whole 'oooohhh space music maaan' scene ultimately it came to bore me musically. Not because I don't share the same visions as many of the people I have mentioned, I do even to this day - especially about the allure of space/time travel itself. Musically though, for me, it wasn't exactly adventurous music. Oh, it was at first (either that or the drugs anyway) but after a while the same old sturm and drang got on me tits. Ever since that day, I have avoided the music like the plague. I also know that Nigel has become very active at Soundclick and Songplanet (you may know him as Terentek) so I've had much more opportunity to get to know him musically. I've heard his material played a lot on Songplanet Radio and I've liked every piece I've heard. It isn't the same however, as a track going through the review mill so, putting all predjudices aside, let's see what's what...

One thing I should mention about Hawkwind's style of space rock (as opposed to say the Floyd's space rock) is that they were - to use a technical term - really fekkin LOUD. Of course, the Floyd were too, but their music wasn't based on a derivative of heavy metal. The reason for all this introspective navel gazing is simple; where I may have gotten the impression that Nigel belonged to the HM side of space, his music is most definitely rooted in a much more adventurous environment. To say that I really enjoyed listening to Spaceflight Part 1 would be an understatment - I gulped this bad boy down like a starving man. Take the best of a classic rock sound, sprinkle it liberally with bits of various space mission gobbldegook, strap a rocket to it's bum and send it off into the wild blue yonder and you'd be in orbit with this little number before you could say G force. Or, as we in the Imperial Space Navy would say, oh s***. Which, remarkably enough, is EXACTLY what I said when I first heard this track. Not exactly my favourite Nigel Potter track, but well up there...

Houston, we do not have a problem. Highly Recommended.

Steve Gilmore
Soundclick * Songplanet * MP3 Unsigned * Acid Planet * Vitamin C

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N POTTER

Wild sounds.

Wall of noise.

Sensory overload.

Sounds of emotion and sensation.

An attempt at making brain sounds.

A neural soundscape.

"Songwriter/musician/composer/sound magician Nigel Potter makes music that takes you on an inner journey. His compositions are experimentally exotic and unapologetically spacey, while somehow remaining invitingly melodic and emotionally accessable. Seldom do you find a writer so seamlessly capable of both."

~Bill MacKechnie