If you live here in the ‘States, there’s a pretty solid chance that if you’re familiar with the band SPACE, you know them from one song only – their 1996 single, “Female of the Species.” The retro vibe of that song tapped into the moment – a time when audiences were embracing the 60’s, and nothing solidified that more than its remixed inclusion on the soundtrack for AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY in 1997. SPIDERS, the album from which that single came, became one of my favorite albums of the 90s, and while SPACE became popular in their UK home (and elsewhere in the world), like many great bands, their audience in the U.S. just never materialized in the way that it should have. Eager for the release of their next album, TIN PLANET, I was disappointed when it didn’t receive a proper Stateside release (it since has), and SPACE became a mystery whose music was hard to track down in those early days of the internet boom, with the geographic availability paired with a hard-to-search name making less-savory outlets the only place to dig for treasure until the 2005 release of a 2-Disc GREATEST HITS collection that paired songs from their first two albums with remixes and b-sides. You can imagine my surprise when an email arrived at Rock Father HQ this morning with a simple message: “SPACE are back!”
“Strange World” is the new single from SPACE, slated for an official release this October as a taste of things to come. While the song and announcement were a surprise to me, what was even more surprising (again, that U.S./U.K. media detachment) is that SPACE actually returned in 2011 and put out a new record last year called ATTACK OF THE MUTANT 50ft KEBAB, which means I’ll be hitting Amazon for that one later. The band is touring the UK this Fall.
Stay tuned for more on SPACE as I have it, and in the meantime go down the rabbit hole on YouTube, and follow the band on Twitter and Facebook.
