Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Yes, folks, the aliens have landed. And they have brought their extra-terrestrial music to save us from ourselves.
Billions of years ago Zpor was forced to leave his home planet of Agricular before it was consumed by its dying sun. He visited Xylanthia in the Sirius star system where he was introduced to the highly spiritual form of music called ‘cosmic dross’. His teacher was a charismatic drummer called Nom. The two of them became travelling companions and visited many planets in the Milky Way. They found Venus in the grip of a runaway greenhouse effect and rescued the last surviving Venusian, whose name was Goo. This trio chanced upon a human on the astral plane who invited them to Earth. They all met at a henge not far from Manchester and Grok, the human, was soon added to the merry band.
It was immediately obvious to the visitors that Earth’s resources are being squandered on making weapons of war. Their response was to send a message encoded in cosmic dross music together with explanatory (ex-planetary?) text that reads as follows:
We demand
that the weapons of war
are manufactured no more.
Demilitarise!We demand
that we have in its place
the means to unite
and colonise space.
Whether it is the sentiment behind the song or the cosmic dross vibe is hard to tell but this track fires the imaginations of all who hear it. It forms the finale of Henge‘s debut album, Attention Earth! where it rounds off seven cheeky specimens of electronic dance music.
There’s an inescapable sense of joy and fun in these pieces of sonic art. They carry the stamp of the uninhibited artwork of children let loose with a paintbrush and the vivid colour palette of their imagined worlds. Indeed, Indigo Dust is an unashamed celebration of the visual arts.
The space travellers have a different perspective on the Earth. It is the outsider’s detached and distant view. They see the wondrous whole where we human beings get lost in the details. Take our moon, for example. Henge say we should treasure it:
Some planets have many moons… but, Earthlings, you have only one. Therefore it is appropriate that you cherish your singular and exquisite celestial pumpkin…. and duly take inspiration from this magnificent satellite.
And to ram home the point they have provided a musical tribute to that “magnificent satellite”.
There’s a touch of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown about a Henge stage act. But it’s a performance from the age of the rave rather than a hangover from the psychedelic sixties. And everyone is welcome. Last night Henge had an evening show for adult ‘ravelings’ in Leicester; this afternoon there’s a matinee for families in Bristol. And their FaceBook page has many pictures of young children enjoying the sounds and the spectacle of the space dance quartet collected from earlier club shows and festivals.
‘We have seen a proliferation of joy, we have seen an increase in instances of outwards expressions of ecstasy, and an increase in incidents of positive tactile interactions – the stomping off feet, the clapping of hands, the raising of voices. We take these as positive signs that our experiment is having some kind of effect.’
The family-friendly nature of Henge is perhaps best illustrated by the fan art that they have assembled on their website. Here’s a selection:
Henge has certainly grabbed Crotchety Man’s attention. And it has cheered him up immensely.
Crotchety Man 