Radar Men From The Moon (RMFTM) are named after a 1952 series of 12 shorts, directed by Fred C. Brannon who was responsible for a whole string of these low budget movies – and his rapacious output tells you something about the quality of the films themselves. The same could not be said for this Dutch instrumental three-piece which who have released four albums – Intergalactic Dada & Space Trombones, Echo Forever, Strange Wave Galore and Subversive I – each of which has built on the previous one which were a great amalgam of astro and astral sounds.
RMFTM are a band that are out there, in many senses of the word, and Strange Wave Galore was one of my albums of the year last year. It is like a journey; it is a coherent piece of work that works best if listened to as a full album. I find it at different times strange, thrilling, and thoughtful. I have only heard their new one, Subversive I, a few times so far but I am already beginning to see where the band are going with it.
And now I have finally had the chance to see RMFTM live, albeit playing a short half hour set. Made up principally from tracks from Subversive I (launched at the Festival) it provided an excellent showcase for the band’s powerful music. I was very impressed by RMFTM’s tightness, and the raw yet punchy delivery of the likes of ‘Deconstruction’ and the Numan-inspired ‘Habitual’ showed me that they could fill the room their dark brooding and other-worldly music .
If this is what the band can do in half an hour I can wait to see a full set.
You can find my other writing for Backseat Mafia here, including reports from this year’s Liverpool PsychFest.
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