LOST IN SPACE

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Whoa! Six discs is a lot to sit through, but I don't expect anyone to try this. Listen to one or two discs, come back later, listen to the following discs, and so on. Radio Massacre International released a 6 CD box set in 2006 to finally be able to release a bunch of stuff sitting in the archives, including a couple of DAS material from the late '80s, the rest often material from CDs they were recording at the time they could get on because of lack of space or didn't fit the flow of that release. It's almost a career retrospective, except it's unlikely anyone's heard these cuts before, aside from Steve Dinsdale, Gary Houghton and Duncan Goddard. First disc is the least RMI-like, in fact the earliest cuts here feature neither sequencer nor Mellotron. As the disc progresses, you'll learn that they acquired the Mellotron in 1991 and quickly started using it (apparently they were already using the Radio Massacre International name around 1989 or 1990). 1992's "200 Mushrooms" is a really peculiar ambient piece. Disc two is from 1993, and it's more familiar RMI material. They are by now using modified arpeggiators to get results that are similar to the sequencer. A lot of this material is really trippy beyond belief, with tons of Mellotron. Disc three is from 1994, and some of it is from the Frozen North sessions, including "Frozen North II". In fact, it's been stated RMI wanted the Frozen North CD to be a six part movement, instead, only "Frozen North I" and "IV" made it to the actual Frozen North CD, on disc two, while disc one had unrelated stuff, but obviously worth recording. Each of these disc progress eventually up to 2003, but if you own enough of their material, you get to know what you're up against here: lots of sinister ambient passages leading up to the use of sequencers. I have noticed as this box set is just unbelievably stuffed with Mellotron (disc one has the least amount, only because it's the earliest recordings), more so than their regular recordings. RMI's music is never what you call an easy listen, and six discs is a lot, but it's stuff with lots of great material. Remember, many of these cuts are real lengthy, "Retina Flood" is by far the lengthiest cut here at 42:15. Let me tell you I bought this box set in February 2008, and it's taken me until now to get even the least bit familiar with it. Not like RMI had been ever modest (I felt their 2006 collaboration with Ian Boddy, Septentrional was about as modest as they came), but it's obviously a lot easier for me to familiarize myself with their standard releases, usually a single CD set where the music is just usually over an hour long. There is plenty of Lost in Space you'll end up enjoying if you like this kind of stuff, but if you're new, I suggest you try their shorter releases, like The God of Electricity, Septentrional, Organ Harvest, or even the uncharacteristically space rock of Rain Falls in Grey. I still give Lost in Space four stars for the quality of material.

4.5 stars. This is a six disc box set from those space-walkers from the UK. The music is from 1987 to 2003. "Lost In Space" is a great title for this set of music because that is often the feeling you get.This is what it says on the back of the case. "This set of six discs is a collection, arranged more-or-less chronicologically, of things that we've never released in any form before. Ah-except for "Frozen North II", strictly speaking & "Damo". But they were both live versions & very different from what you've got here. Some of these pieces were recorded before we'd even thought about the distant possibility of selling stuff to other people to listen to (again), while others were recorded after we'd begun releasing cds, but found themselves on the cutting-room floor because they somehow didn't belong on whatever album we were in the middle of assembling,or they were too long & we didn't want to abbreviate them."

There are notes with each track as well in the liner notes. I also wanted to mention that on the Planet Mellotron site Andy gives this five Trons.That means it's stuffed to the gills with mellotron, and if your a fan of RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL's early mellotron drenched albums then this is a must.

Disc four is my favourite as we get such powerful soundscapes filled with atmosphere and mellotron.Quite haunting at times too. I'm not going to go track by track since there's about 7 hours of music here but for fans of this band you should know that the music here doesn't take a back seat to their official releases. And I find the info about each track very interesting.

This is a valuable addition to my RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL collection, in fact it really completes it.