Recommended music: 'The Race For Space' by Public Service Broadcasting

The sophomore album from Public Service Broadcasting sees them tell the tale of the space race between Russia and America between 1957 and 1972. Following their usual model of using historical soundclips, they play the two sides off against each as they reach epic and sometimes tragic milestones, from the launch of Sputnik, to the death of the 3 Apollo 1 astronauts, to the first spacewalk and ultimately the moon landing. According to the sleevenotes they used different mixing techniques and even a different drum kit to record each nation's tracks, and in doing so they've successfully managed to give a different feel to the CCCP and the USA.

The record does feel like a development for the band and a step forward for them. With an act like this who are so dependent on the recorded clips there was a risk that the songs could become very formulaic and repetitive, but here they've developed new sounds and new ways of working. The first two tracks are probably the most diverse, moving from the heavenly choir on the title track to the funked-up "superhero theme tune" of 'Gagarin'. Later on they enlist the help of Smoke Fairies on 'Valentina' to bring a female perspective to the story of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. Meanwhile 'Go' is a fantastically energetic and joyous retelling of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

For me the most impressive thing about this album is how they've managed to convey both the emotion and majesty of the space programmes, and also managed to inject a tinge of sadness that it all came to such an abrupt and disappointing ending. To send a manned to the moon with less computing power than there is in a modern-day iPod is a phenomenal achievement, and you have to wonder where we could be now if the two nations had pooled their resources and worked together to develop an ongoing and sustainable space programme.

If you haven't seen the brilliantly fun video for 'Gagarin' then you should go here to watch it. And you can get a free remix of that track from this page on my blog.

Recommended music: 'Elemental Themes' by Chrome Canyon

Not what you might be expecting from the Stones Throw label, and I must admit that having heard a couple of snatches of this before I got the album I thought I was going to hate it. But after the first play of the whole album end to end I loved it so much that I wanted to put it straight back on again.It's one of those rarities these days where listening to the album in one go really pays dividends - the more you sink into the mood and atmosphere of the record the better it gets.

So what does it sound like? Imagine the soundtrack to the best film Ridley Scott or John Carpenter never made. Imagine a record that sounds like electronic musical equipment had stopped being developed after about 1985. Imagine influences from Giorgio Moroder, Vangelis and Pink Floyd. Yes, that's a lot of imagining to do, but that's what this record encourages. As the tracks unfold you'll be picturing the scenes from a non-existent film, seeing the action played out in front of you as the music plays on. It's like Morgan Z (for he is Chrome Canyon) really did go back to the future to create a vision of the future that's welded to the past.

The title track even throws in some dialogue, as does 'Carfire on the Highway'. And as that staple of early 80s soundtracks, the saxophone, slowly drawls its way through an appearance on the fifth track, before making way for an evolution into something from A Clockwork Orange, you really will feel like you're in a cinematic time warp.

This is much more than a pastiche, or a homage to the past. There are some great melodies in here, some brilliant atmospherics, and hopefully the fact that Morgan's chosen specialist subject on Mastermind would appear to be 'classic electronic soundtracks' won't stop this record getting the exposure it deserves.

Right, I'm off to write a film called 'Elemental' so I can use this as the soundtrack, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this quote from 'Carfire On A Highway' which stands as a pretty good epitaph for the album:- "...a scorched reminder of what we saw ourselves as, and how far from it we still were...".

You can grab a free track from the album below.

LCD Soundsystem - Shut Up And Play The Hits

I thought I'd got over LCD Soundsystem calling it a day, I really did. And then I saw this trailer and realised that maybe I'll never get over it. Made by Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace, who previously made the excellent Blur documentary 'No Distance Left To Run, the film focuses on the events leading up to the final show at Madison Square Gardens, and provides an intimate portrait of James Murphy both before and after the show, as he contemplates life in a post LCD-world.

The film will premiere later this month at the Sundance Film Festival.