Alien Headspace

Rip It Up, Issue 243, 1 November 1997, Page 12

Alien Headspace

It was at a Sun Ra tribute concert held at the now defunct Galaxy Theatre in Auckland, in late 1994, that Spacesuit’s Ben, Darryn, and Gabriel, decided to make music together Ben knew a singer, Sandy, who one night checked out the band live, with notions of joining if the vibe was right. <. :

MThe first thing I thought was, ‘I should be I on mushrooms,’ it was totally freeform and quite wild, I liked it,” says Sandy, who signed up as an official member of the band in June 1995. From day one, Spacesuit’s M.O. has been to operate as a sort of musical collective, free from the hierarchies, inflated egos, and failed democracies of typical rock ‘n’ roll bands. In the practice room, equality was the way of Spacesuit’s walk. “We’d just get together and throw ideas at each other, or we’d just sit down and start jamming. And that’s all we do really. Whatever feels good, we keep going with it.” At least they did, until they split up for the whole of 1996. “We... didn’t really... get on,” laughs Sandy. Spurred on by a successful application to Creative New Zealand for funds to record an album, Spacesuit buried their bitching and reunited in February to cut a record. The quartet spent several months at Darren’s home studio, bashing already existing improvised tunes into songs, and writing new material, before settling into Progressive Studios in downtown Auckland. “The recording took quite awhile, four months,” explains Sandy, “we spent half the time arguing [laughter]. No, it wasn’t that bad, we just had to get it right because we weren’t going to get another turn at it.” “I think we’ve managed to capture the diversity that we’re about and make it flow as a Spacesuit album,” adds Darryn. Spacesuit is a thriller of a record. Its combination of samples and taped interludes, emphasis on multi-layered, rhythmically wild songs, and overall organic feel, delivers a madcap, at times transcendental musical experience. Without a doubt, Spacesuit are in a basket of their own. Darryn has long ago come to that conclusion. “I haven’t heard anything that is like it, and I’ve always had trouble when friends ask what sort of music we play. With Spacesuit it’s hard to say what we’re about. We’re not a band that has influences, over the years we’ve

honed in on what we are about, and got influenced by ourselves and what we were discovering.” “I’ve never been able to describe it,” adds Sandy. “It’s like trying to tell someone what acid’s like when they haven’t tried it.” Two particularly intriguing elements of Spacesuit’s sound are the frenetic, unconventional rhythms, and the sparse but hypnotising vocals. “We want to make things interesting for the listener as well as us,” explains Sandy. “We don’t want to do songs in 4/4, that’s boring. What I’m doing vocally, I’m showing that you can use your voice as an instrument.” Darryn continues; “We involve vocals as a texture, so we’re not concerned with words unless their applicable. People can dance and get into Spacesuit without having to listen to a chorus.” Since thejr inception, Spacesuit have remained a ‘word of mouth’ band. They can draw over 350 people to their shows, even though with Spacesuit there’s no image and no hype, and their roots stay firmly in the underground. “That’s just how we prefer it,” explains Sandy. “I don’t know how we’ve stay underground as such, it just seems to be like that. Everyone in Spacesuit is really good at what they do, and we play and create, and I think that is what people like about it — it’s very easy to dance to. They go out and tell a couple of friends and so on, and that seems to be how it works.” At the end of a summer tour, Spacesuit expect to split up for the second time, says Sandy. However, Darryn points out, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. “Even though we won’t be doing anything next year, I wouldn’t rule out everyone getting together in the future, and doing more recording and gigs. We’ve tried to make Spacesuit this timeless entity, I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘splitting up’ when it comes to Spacesuit.”

JOHN RUSSELL