Recorded over one weekend at Australia’s legendary Armstrong Studios in June 1976, this is the long lost space rock soundtrack to a never-made film based on an unpublished novel. The latter, like the music, was written on a lonely farm by guitar god Loyde during a period of disillusionment, shortly before decamping to London in search of new energy and direction. Several of the Lobster’s peers on the scene read the manuscript and apparently thought it fabulous. Billy Thorpe took inspiration from it for his successful late 70s US album Children Of The Sun. As Lobby decided to burn the only copy before he left for England, we’ll have to take his word for it. Nevertheless, he is sanguine enough, in the detailed glossy booklet typical of Aztec Music’s releases, to suggest that the plotline of time lords and interplanetary warfare “sounds like a pile of shit now”.
The music is certainly a departure from Loyde’s trademark blues/rock-based style. Entirely instrumental and synth-heavy, it’s redolent of the 70s Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd sound, and is definitely of interest to fans of those bands. With nothing here that really adds to his own legend, though, it’s arguably of less interest to fans of Loyde himself, bar the true completists.
