Southeast of Saturn

Michigans space rock scene in the 90s was a thriving but self-contained community. While much of Detroits musical landscape was split between ravers enjoying a high point in their scene and leather-clad rockers ambling towards the garage rock revival the White Stripes would usher in just a few years later, a small but committed sect of Michigan musicians were making sounds more akin to pedal-abusing shoegaze bands, ambient pop, and synth-dabbling Krautrock. Southeast of Saturn is a loving curation of just some of the groups from the states vibrant mid-to-late-90s space rock scene, offering a great place to start discovering a movement that mostly kept to itself while it was happening. While the majority of the bands represented here remained obscure even by indie standards, the compilation highlights the versatility in the scene by including better-known acts along with some of the rarer artifacts of the era. Contributions from the always impressive Windy & Carl, Fuxa, Auburn Lull, and Asha Vida will perhaps be the most definitive inclusions for most listeners. These groups were some of the more visible talents associated with Detroit experimental electronic label Burnt Hair, whose handcrafted 7 single releases helped document the scene as it happened. From the Burnt Hair family, Asha Vidas Eskimo Summer and Miss Bliss Grey bend traditional rock arrangements through dizzying webs of reverb and echo, while Childrens Ice Creams shadowy instrumental By the Hand of God and the Delta Waves accurately named Andromeda Drone explore vacuous dark ambient soundscaping. As pivotal as the more experimental Burnt Hair-related artists are to the comp, Southeast of Saturn also includes a healthy cross-section of other applicable bands from the era. Theres breathy shoegaze alt-rock from Majesty Crush, goth-tinged rock sprawl from Naming Mary, drifting lo-fi melancholia from Glider, and youreyesimmaculate, a track from lovesliescrushing so saturated with reverb the vocals and instruments barely peek out from the beautiful fog theyre wrapped in. Southeast of Saturn runs for almost 80 minutes and goes deep into excavating a largely undocumented part of Michigans always boundary-pushing music history. While the 19 bands here represent both better-known and lesser-known players, this only scratches the surface in regard to all the exciting bands and spaced-out experimenters who were active at the time. We can only hope that this is the first of multiple volumes dedicated to honoring a moment in music thats just as rewarding and strange decades later. ~ Fred Thomas