3 Obscure 90s Space Rock Albums You've Never Heard
When the conversation turns to progressive rock, our collective memory typically drifts to the symphonic grandeur of the 1970s—the era of 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' and 'Close to the Edge'—or perhaps the slick, pop-infused resurgence of Genesis and Yes in the 1980s. But what of the 1990s, that decade so thoroughly dominated by the raw angst of grunge, the revolutionary fervor of the riot grrrl movement, and the coastal rap wars that defined an era? It was within this cacophony of flannel and fury that a dedicated, if subterranean, vein of spacey, improvisational prog-rock not only persisted but evolved, creating albums that are like lost transmissions from a forgotten cosmos, waiting to be rediscovered by the discerning listener.This was not the prog of stadiums and platinum records; it was a more intimate, experimental affair, often released on independent labels and traded among enthusiasts in record stores that smelled of dust and devotion. The first album on this clandestine journey is 'Starfishing' by The Dark Horses, a 1994 opus that plays like a love letter to early Pink Floyd fed through a filter of shoegaze distortion.Its centerpiece, the 17-minute 'Nebula Drift,' is a masterclass in atmospheric build-up, with guitarist Elara Vance employing a theremin and an array of delay pedals to create a soundscape that feels less like a song and more like a voyage through the Horsehead Nebula. Following this is 'Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum' by the short-lived collective Mandelbrot Set, a 1997 release that daringly incorporated elements of early electronic music and jazz fusion.The album's complexity is legendary among a small circle of collectors; its time signatures shift as unpredictably as quantum particles, and its lyrical themes, drawn from Kurt Vonnegut's novels, offer a wry, philosophical counterpoint to the decade's prevailing nihilism. The final, and perhaps most obscure, gem is 'Lunar Permafrost' from the enigmatic band Selenite, a 1999 swan song recorded in a converted church in rural Wales.It’s a colder, more minimalist take on the space rock formula, where vast, echoing silences are as important as the glacial riffs and ethereal vocals, presaging the post-rock movement that would gain traction in the early 2000s. These three albums form a secret history, a triptych of 90s prog that refused to die, instead choosing to orbit just outside the mainstream's glare, their artistic ambition a testament to the enduring human desire to explore, both the outer reaches of music and the inner space of the imagination.
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