Peter Thomas (& Various Artists)–
Warp Back to Earth
(BUNG 48)
In 1966, 40-year-old composer Peter Thomas followed Lucia Pamela and Sun Ra into outer space to musically accompany the adventures of the Space Patrol Orion. Because his space-lounge sounds weren’t fully appreciated by his German peers, no one wanted to cover the cost of a return ticket.
Well, I’m here to tell you that in 1999, this reviewer lives eight blocks from the ChiCha Lounge, 10 blocks from the Velvet Lounge, and four blocks from Flying Saucer Discs, so Welcome Back Peter, roll over Henry Mancini and tell Esquivel and John Barry the news.
This new homage includes 26 original tracks (some actually just bits and
pieces) that are less cheesy than Equivel’s overrated 60s covers and more relaxing than Barry’s deserved classics. Although I’d never heard of Thomas before last year, in retrospect this seems much more the blueprint for Stereolab’s Mars Audiac Quartet than anything by Faust or Can. Whether he’s bending violins or pushing his moog into hyperdrive, there’s an incredible consistency to the tracks culled for this project.
And on disc 1, Thomas gets beautiful remixes and interpretations by
Stereolab (much better than their recent Pastel’s remix) and the High
Llamas (better than anything on Lolla Rosso), and great tracks from Tipsy,
the High Llamas, Dauerfisch, Momus, Sons of Silence, Mina, Saint Etienne, Yoshinori Sunahara, Stereo Total and John McEntire (not as good as his
Pastels’ remix).
— Dave Harrison