Space Daze 2000 – Review

Space Daze 2000

(Cleopatra)
by Joshua Brown

The timeline spanned here covering electronic ambient space rock’s history is 1974 to the present, with some of the same original players. Hawkwind later becomes Anubian Lights with Nik Turner, Simon House (who also appears as Spiral Realms), and Del Pettmer; ahead-of-their-time masters Roxy Music (whose “Out of the Blue” is featured) lose ambient pioneer extraordinaire Brian Eno, who pops up over the next couple of years recording with David Bowie (“All Saints”) and King Crimson’s Robert Fripp (“Wind On Water”). As we venture off the UK island and over to Germany, we see the spatial vortex exerting its influence electronically through the compositions of Klaus Schultze (also an early member of Tangerine Dream), and monstrously seminal musical prophets Kraftwerk. Three of the modern key players in shaping music’s “future of the future” featured on Space Daze 2000 are Aphex Twin, William Orbit, and Future Sound of London. The remainder of the disc is occupied by Cleopatra’s own signings, who include Zero Gravity (with Len Del Rio of Pressurehed), San Francisco’s Melting Euphoria, and television soundtrack composer Victor Wulf’s Dilate, not to mention the post-Hawkwindites referred to earlier, Anubian Lights and Spiral Realms. Aside from the obvious (and understandable) tendency to push their own acts, Cleopatra’s second epic space rock compilation succeeds both as an overview of a rich, esoteric history, and as something fun to listen to.