Space Cowboy y'all!!!

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Okay so today I listened to a sampler for the new Space Cowboy album "Across the Sky" and it sounded exceedingly excellent, and often not at all what I expected. Had to buy it immediately, which is unusual for me. A quick run-down:

"Funky Love (Club Mix)": tightly compressed french-disco along the lines of Cassius's "Sound of Violence". Not lifechanging but very very good.

"Cuttin' 'n' Scratchin' (Club Mix)": very much a "Where's Your Head At" style tune, solid not amazing.

"So You Like What You See": An utterly insane bhangra-electro-house stunner with sexy falsetto crooning. The closest reference point is the Jaxx's "Lucky Star" I guess, but perhaps it's better to imagine Richard X getting jiggy with tablas. Really awesome, and there's this amazing moment when it breaks down into a hard-driving tabla loop before slowly building itself back up to insanity.

"Prove Me Wrong": Even better! A glorious sitar-driven hip hop track, verses from some UK rapper and then these wonderfully cute falsetto choruses. Sort of like if Scritti Politti made "Tinseltown to the Boogiedown", but actually better than that. Its dreampoppy-spangliness also reminds me a bit of the best moments on the last Bows album, or A.R. Kane's I. Also sorta works as a bizarro UK Garage track if you play it at 45 rather than 33rpm.

"All 'Bout Money": More straightforward but still pretty excellent r&b/funk track, really dense with samples and sonic effects.

"So You Like What You See" and "Prove Me Wrong" are the two astonishing moments here, and they suggest that Space Cowboy is throwing his hat into the ring with the Jaxx, Neptunes and Outkast as yet another contender for the position of the new Prince (the relatively high-pitched vocals don't hurt). Assuming that "I Would Die 4 U", "Just Put Your Hand In Mine" and "Crazy Talk" are also on the full album, this could be an absolutely fantastic, if utterly schizoid album.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 21 November 2003 06:33 (twenty-two years ago)

So Steve Miller has a new album out?

Sorry Tim, but at least I gave ya a bump.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 21 November 2003 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

sounds great - look forward to hearing this. i like 'Always & Forever' as well (b-side of 'I Would Die 4 U')

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 21 November 2003 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

oh wow. as soon as somebody finds this on slsk, lemme know. immediately.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 21 November 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Sounds fantastic. When is this released?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 November 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I was dead tempted to buy this but read a shit review and since so many albums like this do end up crap I wasn't going to bother.

Just Put Your Hand In Mine is a warped form of genius isn't it, all those odd hardcore beeps at the end. I really might buy this now, I loved the artwork which almost tempted me into it today.

Gah Tim you have made me want to hear this now and I have no money!

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 21 November 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I was hoping this was a Jonzun Crew thread!

― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

chuck, i kiss you (see story about my mom making me cry by buying me steve miller's "space cowboy" instead of the jonzun crew song when i was a kid)

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 21 November 2003 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I just decided maybe I should play them both, BACK TO BACK (and Sly Stone's "Spaced Cowboy," too!) at my Grassy Knoll Memorial DJ gig Saturday night (at Galapagos in Williamsburg Brooklyn 10 pm to 4 am). (But I'll probably just wind up playing "Take the Money and Run" instead, like I always do.)

― chuck, Friday, 21 November 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

is there a way to hear "prove me wrong" that doesn't make it sound like the not-very-rich man's "lucky star"?

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Saturday, 22 November 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a bit harsh Mitch - I don't really think it's trying for the same effect at all. It's more sweet and sunny rather than hyper-explosion (that's "So You Like What You See"). It actually reminds me of Saint Etienne's "Soft Like Me".

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 23 November 2003 05:29 (twenty-two years ago)

okay, so i was being a little hard on it. a kneejerk 'slightly disappointed' response. yeah, the mood's different.. it kinda sounds like a bouncier version of jt's "what you got for me", p'rhaps just in the way it singemindedly rides the 'exotic' sample, but that could be any number of recent rap/rnb singles i suppose. or maybe it's the 'happy' flipside of ms jade's 'dream'. still, it hasn't really grabbed me yet. and it's summer here too, i don't get it. maybe it's the rapping. i'm not a rap fascist really - my general rule is 'if it works, it works'. but it doesn't quite work here, the rapping is noticeably poor i think. haven't heard 'so you like..' yet.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 23 November 2003 11:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(ha notch one up for head-shakingly POOR comprehension, somehow i read the "lucky star" reference in yr initial "so you like what you see" description, and then forgot that that's where the suggestion came from when i posted that first post.)

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 23 November 2003 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Mitch I don't think I'd have liked it so much if I hadn't first heard through DJ headphones stuck on a really high volume so that the junglistic dub bass was really loud. I'm gonna test it out DJing on Saturday night - will report back!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 24 November 2003 02:13 (twenty-two years ago)

sounds interesting,i must have a look on slsk...

― robin (robin), Monday, 24 November 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Really looking forward to this one, "Just Put Your Hand In Mine" was inspired.

― stevo (stevo), Sunday, 30 November 2003 10:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I defer to you Tim on all things, but I'm just not so keen on this one...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 30 November 2003 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

people don't talk about this enough, it's rather good you know

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 3 June 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

I downloaded this song by Space Cowboy called "True Love". I think it must be mislabelled or something because I can't find info for it. It's a huge heavily compressed sample house monster a la "Call On Me"....the sample is from what sounds like a pop metal song.. the hook goes "sure know somethin, sure know somethin" (i think; it might be "true love somethin, true love somethin" or "true love's comin, true love's comin".) Anyway it's a flat out AMAZING track... Anybody know if this is an incorrectly titled Space Cowboy track or is it actually by a different artist?

― fizzcaraldo (Justin M), Saturday, 19 June 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.