Project Moonbase – The Historic Sound of the Future | Unusual music show | Podcast | Space cult | projectmoonbase.com

We've been eagerly awaiting William Shatner's new single/double/triple album Seeking Major Tom, consisting of 20 tracks (mostly cover versions), for a few months now. A tantalising track-listing appeared on William Shatner's website back in April 2011 and more recently footage emerged of the great man recording his version of Iron Man in the studio. Well now we finally have our hands on a copy of this modern masterpiece and well worth the wait it was too. As this is such an auspicious occasion we decided it would be only fitting to feature the album fairly extensively on the show this week and so for that reason we have chosen three of our favourite tracks.

This week, dear listener, you find us hovering above that sinister Air Force base, Area 51, as we bring you a selection of variously sinister and suspicious sounds. We also have a track from a release on the new label Public Information as well as a couple of recently released treats on Trunk Records. Not only that, but we also have two (yes, two) doses of bluegrass!

Well, dear listener, an auspicious moment has arrived in the history of Project Moonbase. Yes, we've reached our 50th episode of the podcast! To celebrate reaching this significant figure, we have selected a special set of tunes this week all of which have a golden theme.

As you know, dear listener, we've been covering some of the big topics of the day in our recent podcasts. Well there are few core topics we've rather neglected which is why this week on the show we turn our long overdue attentions in the direction of those marvellous metallic moto-men (and future overlords), the robots!

It’s time for some shameless opportunism on the show this week as we jump on the bandwagon of celebration taking place to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind. As with our previous track-for-track covers of Kraftwerk’s Man Machine and the Beatles’ White Album, we believe we can improve on the original. So for this show we have cracking cover versions of 9 of the 13 tracks on the album, covering genres as far flung as German lounge, Basque doo-wop, Russian chiptune and even some reggae from Kingston Jamaica. download the MP3 directly.   The Music 1. Mambo Kurt:Smells Like Teen Spirit from Spiel Heimorgel Spiel 2. The Sparteens:In Bloom from Grandes Exitos Del Ayer 3. The King:Come As You Are from Gravelands 4. Burton Greene:Breed from The Cocktail Tribute To Nirvana 5. Little Roy:Lithium from Battle for Seattle 6. Vitamin String Quartet:Polly from VSQ Master Series: Nirvana’s Nevermind 7. Kazyutron:Territorial Pissings 8. Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band:Stay Away from SPIN Presents Newermind: A Tribute Album 9. Rockabye Baby!:On a Plain from Lullaby Renditions of Nirvana 10. 2 many djs:Smells Like Booty Project Moonbase is listener supported. So next time you buy anything from Amazon, please go via our Amazon affiliate link. It won’t cost you anything, is totally anonymous and best of all it helps keep the show running. Thank you! The Unnecessary News Ernest Shackleton biscuit from 1907 South Pole expedition to sell for £1,500 Dino Feathers Found In Amber Hugh Laurie is most watched man on television 50 New Planets Discovered, Possibly Including Habitable ‘Super-Earth’ People Who Are Afraid of Wi-Fi Have Found a Town in West Virginia That Bans Wireless Signals for 13,000 Square Miles Meet the world’s largest natural afro hair-do

We're getting all seasonal on the show this week as we take the weather, or more accurately the various forms of precipitation, for our musical theme. This was largely inspired by another track on the recently released Sachal Studios album where former Lollywood orchestra members were brought out of retirement to perform a selection of jazz standards. In this particular case, Misty. As well as mist we also have fog, rain, dew and associated paraphernalia.

As you may know, dear listener, there’s been a resurgence of interest over the last few years in releasing music on cassette tape. This is something we heartily endorse at the Moonbase, being as we are enthusiasts of all forms of obsolete technology. So on this week’s show every track comes from a cassette release – and not only that, it is played from an actual tape! We have selections from new releases by Dylan Ettinger, DMX Krew, Monroeville Music Center, Pye Corner Audio, R. Stevie Moore, Orca Team, Giant Claw and Oxykitten and a not-so-new-release by Super Mazembe. As the number of people who voted “yes” in the recent poll on our website vastly outnumbered the no votes, we are also delighted to announce that this show will itself be released in a very limited run on cassette! We’ll let you know how, when and where you’ll be able to acquire a copy of what we feel will be a highly collectable item. Alternatively, download the MP3 directly.   The Music 1. Dylan Ettinger:Endeavor from Botany Bay 2. DMX Krew:Sound Of The DMX from Sound Of The Street 3. Orca Team:Full Moon from Kissing Cousins 4. Giant Claw:Big Heat from Midnight Murder 5. Super Mazembe:Pepeye from Kasongo/Ouma 6. R. Stevie Moore:My Bad Music from 1952-21?? 7. Monroeville Music Center:Lee Redmond’s Slow Motion Fender Bender from les défauts des fabrication 8. Oxykitten:That Chair Makes You Look Fat from Unfluential 9. Pye Corner Audio:06 Recrypt from Black Mill Tapes Vol 2-Do You Synthesize? 10. R. Stevie Moore:Cassettes from 1952-21?? Project Moonbase is listener supported. So next time you buy anything from Amazon, please go via our Amazon affiliate link. It won’t cost you anything, is totally anonymous and best of all it helps keep the show running. Thank you! The Unnecessary News Germany lifts ban on Doom sales after 17 years Coffee prepared at 20,000ft in balloon record bid PowerPoint ban wanted by Swiss political party Don’t Be Grumpy, Simply “Goal Disengage” Bridesmaid Attends Wedding via iPad Injecting old mice with young blood rejuvenates them

If you were listening to last week's show you'll have heard some excerpts from an interview we carried out with Kev Oyston who put together the Electronic Encounters album which forms the centrepiece to the show.

To mark the release of a new (and free to download) compilation of tunes inspired by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind and put together by friend of the show Kev Oyston (aka Soulless Party), this week's show is all about close encounters of various descriptions. It also features several tracks from Electronic Encounters as well as an interview with Mr Oyston.

Since this show is episode FORTY FOUR we thought it only appropriate to dedicate this week's show to the world of numbers. So every track on the show has a numerical theme, mostly in base 10 but bases 2 and 16 do also get a mention. In case you're wondering why numbers are particularly relevant this week, all will become clear as the show unfolds...

Time to tackle another Big Theme on the show this week. Yes, we thought it was high time we tackled the intoxicating world of drugs. This was largely prompted by a rather wonderful new single from teenage sensation SUPERCUTE! which gently mocks the classic anti-drugs song.

At the suggestion of listener John Toolan, we thought it would be a good idea to explore the wooooo-like sound world of the theremin and some of the other instruments in this musical family. So on this week's show you'll hear theremin performances from Leon Theremin's grand-niece Lydia Kavina, his protege Clara Rockmore as well as two (yes two!) versions of show favourite Caravan on the theremin. We also have a track by Edinburgh-based thereminist Theremin Hero who specialises in playing video game soundtracks on his instrument: what a perfect Moonbase combination!

It's time to tackle another big topic, namely pet ownership. Or, more specifically for this episode, dog ownership. This was prompted by an unncannily large number of dog news stories so we decided it was about time we let the show go to the dogs. Most of the tracks on the show this week have a doggy connection but we do also have another track from the new Advisory Circle album, a track from the newly-issued collection of Wersi organ demonstrations by Klaus Wunderlich and a new feature: Spotlight on Irrelevance.

On the show this week it's all fear, paranoia, black ops and extraordinary rendition as we take on the Axis of Evil. This was inspired by a truly wonderful song on the latest album by "Weird Al" Jankovic (Alpocalypse) which involves taking Miley Cyrus' 2009 hit Party in the USA and translating it to the world of the Men in Black.

As we are recording this week's show at the height of glorious Summer [cough] with all the vibrant hues we see at this time of year, we thought we should celebrate by dedicating the whole show to the world of colours.