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Baker's Dozen

Hurtling Through The Void: Roly Porter's Favourite Space Records
Theo Darton-Moore , February 24th, 2016 10:52

Following the release of Third Law, the producer talks Theo Darton-Moore through his favourite records associated with space travel and exploration, pieces of music that "look at things outside our own existence"

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Queen – Flash Gordon
This one comes from a similar time period to when I was listening to the Mahavishnu and Sun Ra – when I was younger and spending a lot of time with Jamie Kuedo. In my mind when I was younger Queen were this awful thing to be avoided at all costs. I get why people can't stand Queen and I'm not going to defend them, but the Flash Gordon soundtrack is a crazy synth space opera masterpiece, and to hear some of the ambient moments and some of the synth moments was just a shock. Some of it's genuinely beautiful. 'Ming's Theme' is a killer but the strings at the end of 'Execution Of Flash' followed by 'The Kiss' are the real highlights.

Everything about the entire film should be awful, I don't know why I love it! It sits completely outside of this list – music for me is so serious. I was always accused of being no fun about music – everything had to be massively important and serious. Obviously Flash Gordon doesn't really fit into that mould but I think it's a genuinely great score!