Torii MacAdams will be back to earth in 21 years like Interstellar
The last manned mission to the Moon was in 1972, but even 43 years and diminished NASA budgets haven’t dampened the belief that space, Mars and beyond, is the final frontier. Legowelt’s new EP, Cosmic Space, is a retro-futuristic glance at the cosmos; appropriately, the prolific Dutch producer works in analog, a passé-cum-trendy style as backward-forward thinking as the idea of outer space colonies. Cosmic Space is being issued on DJ Haus’ Unknown to the Unknown, a label seemingly with one moon boot in the past, the other in the future.
Much of the outer space oeuvre consists of maladroit synths in the vein of Vangelis and Wendy Carlos; Legowelt is a synth expert, and Cosmic Space traffics in some of these motifs, but the EP is, foremost, dance music. “Lumeria”’s modulating synths foment a spaced-out, experimental feel, but the “‘Amen’ break” jungle drums give the song a sense of drive. On “Immensity of Cosmic Space,” Legowelt succeeds in adventuring without dithering, and the progression from sci-fi sample, to bongos, to swirling synths, to beeps ‘n’ boops, is seamless. Thanks to Legowelt, Carl Sagan is dancing in his grave.
