CD, Mechanoise Labs, 2005
www.mechanoise-labs.com
“People of Earth: attention! This is a voice speaking to you from thousands of miles beyond your planet!” a mechanical and slightly garbled voice announces, briefly accompanied by a wailing theremin. This solemn (if authoritative) announcement sets the tone of French project Stelladrine’s “You’ll Never See Your World Again”, a collection of soundtrack and ambient pieces filled with nostalgia for the classic future of vintage science-fiction film and television of the 50’s and early 60’s.
An enthusiastic and optimistc retro-futuristic soundtrack, it effectively evokes the naïf and larger-than-life epics of intrepid explorers, scientists (good, evil and mad), bizarre aliens and weird monstrous creatures. Though not groundbreaking, the music in this album certainly fulfills its purpose of conveying a sense of nostalgia with inspired and skillfully composed sound collages, drones and ambient soundscapes even though it seems to wander off on occasion. The use of guitar further adds human feeling to the tracks where it is present, at times making them drift towards another staple of 50’s pop culture, surf-rock (and not just in the obvious track “Astrosurfers of Tomorrow”).
Perhaps due to their collage nature, ‘action-packed’tracks such as “Destination Earth”, “Scientists and Madmen” and “Attack of the Radioactive Freaks” are the immediate ear-grabbers in this album, contrasting with more reflective/ambient tracks like “Martian Dreams” (an homage to Ray Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles”?) and the ballad for theremin and guitar “The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be”. “Cycloptic Disintegrator” falls somewhere in between, as a soundtrack composition that evolves into something else (and maybe could have been further explored).
Not for everyone and certainly an acquired taste, this is an amusing and interesting release that should be approached with tongue firmly in cheek. Vintage science-fiction enthusiasts will surely find “You’ll Never See Your Word Again” extremely appealing as it is indeed a fine soundtrack to (re)live the excitement and bright promises of an imaginary future past, exploring the outer limits.
[8/10]
— Miguel de Sousa