Voyager One - Monster Zero
(Loveless)
Voyager One is sending you out to space. The aliens of Planet X have announced that Monster Zero is living on their planet and will soon be sent to Earth to destroy it all. The natural reaction is to go into space with guns blazing, and send all the fire power you have (like Godzilla and Rodan) to Planet X in order to circumvent the threat. But if you go into space, you want to make sure you can come back.
Voyager One's second broadly released album, Monster Zero, is this beckon call to space. The asteroid-level revolutions the band made with their last album, From the New Nation of Long Shadows, have been expanded so far that they no longer are elliptical paths around Earth, but rather free flowing paths around the galaxy as they mature their British-via-Seattle shoegaze invasion into something more experimental and not as easily pinpointed.
The album starts with "Out in the Marketplace," pulling you away from Earth's gravity with military-style snare drum clatter, guitar feedback, a simple keyboard melody, and sampled conversations. It's an experimental, droning soundscape that the band only has hinted at in prior releases, but here they pull it off beautifully.
Also in that experimental vein is the gorgeous "Snow Angel Summer," which starts with keyboard tones repeatedly swelling in slow motion with male and female vocals. As you're drifting off, the bass and drum machine kick in, and the song really takes flight. The drum machine trickery in this song is so simple and so pure that it is unbelievably catchy. It's a simple pattern, but the sound and volume is altered to build and receed in pitch, creating a riff which matches beautifully with the universally outstanding basslines.
Also completely different is the Spaceheads-like title track. The song starts with a blast of processed noise, sounding like raga dancehall music, but the sound quickly purifies to a drum-n-bass loop. Intertwined in this loop is rhythmic guitar, which provides the foundation for all sorts of processed sounds, most prominently being some solid trumpet riffing.
While Monster Zero finds Voyager One being much more experimental and adventurous, there are still plenty of songs that fit the Brit-pop mold of their previous albums. "Wires" and "Three Pair" are college radio-worthy chuggers, with luscious riffs, overt hooks, and a Morrissey-style frontman.
The surprising pop song is the album's sole cover, a so-wrong-its-right version of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo." An organ moans, hollow drums pound, and atmospheric sounds dance around the sonic space. The vocalist huffs vocals like "buffalo and bison, bison and buffalo, cannonball and rifle, rifle and cannonball" as the song errupts into a wall of sound. With the version of "Daytripper" on their last album, Voyager One have proven to be well adept at stretching and pulling the songs of others to fit their needs. (Echo and the freaking Bunnymen!)
After the album's walls of feedback and otherworldy sounds cause you to escape Earth's gravitational pull, album closer "Tokyoidaho" provides the star map back to your home planet. The song is a delicate and quiet soundscape with shimmering, echoing delayed guitars with all sorts of handmade sounds spiriting around the background, ending the album with a calming eight minute drone.
While the aliens might have thought tricking Godzilla and Rodan to leave Earth would have been a great plan, Voyager One show us both how to get to space and how to mellow out and come back down to Earth. With the aliens of Planet X defeated, the score is Voyager: 1, Monster: 0.
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