Space Hymns

Artist: Ramases
Label: Repertoire
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4009910103029
ASIN: B0002LU9TE

Release Date: 2004-07-21

Space Hymns

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Tracks:

Life Child
Oh Mister
And The Whole World
Quasar One
You're The Only One
Earth People
Molecular Delusions
Balloon
Dying Swan
Year 2000
Jesus
Journey To The Inside
Balloon (Alternate Mix) (Bonus Track)
Muddy Water (Bonus Track)
Jesus Come Back (Bonus Track)
Hello Mister (Bonus Track)

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Customer Reviews:

Long lost prog/rock gem.......2006-06-25

If you grew up in the 70's and you eschewed the normal pabulum coming out of album rock radio stations, but still had your feet grounded in the prog/rock genre, like I was, then you must have a special milk crate of LP's set aside that contain certain vinyl gems that you knew then would never come to pass this way again. In the mid-70's I came to know Hartford's WRTC Alien Rock DJ Michael Clare. He told me a few secrets about Ramases that you couldn't glean from the album covers.
First off, Space Hymns, the first album featured Kevin Godley and Lol Crème who worked plenty with Brian Eno (check out "L") and later they formed 10CC. This music, as stated in earlier reviews, is nothing like that. It's spacey electronic folk rock with its own agenda. And therein lies the secret. The lead singer, Ramases, whose head is shaven, claims, along with his wife Sel, who also sings are aliens from another planet and are trapped on Earth. This music, Ramases claims, is the music of their world. The original album cover on Vertigo Records opened up to a giant poster of the cover art, which was the steeple of a church as a rocket blasting off towards space. Folded 3 times it became a cardboard 12 x 12 album cover. Unique and rare. I never saw another cover like that again.
Next, their second album, Glass Top Coffin, minus Godley & Crème, was a standard gatefold cover holding a single LP. The cover picture was a yellow chromatic shift of a star field with the silhouette of a human shape cut out of the front to reveal part of a drawing on the inside gatefold. The mural-like drawing was that of an alien bird landing on an alien shore. Again, pretty and intriguing. Again, inside, the music was beautiful spacey prog/rock. The second album production had a neater and cleaner sound. The secret here was that Ramases and Sel claim to have found transport home and are leaving Earth and Glass Top Coffin was their swan song. I don't know where Michael got his information. Perhaps it was published somewhere in the British press, but this is the story he told me. No one has heard from this musical couple ever since. The albums were difficult to acquire in the first place. I had to wait two years to get my hands on Glass Top Coffin. But, I thought it was a fun legend to carry around these 30 years or so. In 1990, Repertoire Records reissued Space Hymns on CD. Fans are still waiting for the reissue of Glass Top Coffin.

wierd and lovely.......2005-09-20

unique, fabulously wierd and very nice. simultaneously very pop and very spacy. the extremely approximate description: donovan singing & strumming music written by the kinks and lyrics written by sun ra.

so, very dated sounding, but also very cosmic and lovely.

to the reviewer below, fix your turntable and listen again.

Space/folk/rock excellence.......2005-09-11

Superb example of space/folk/rock music. Not boring at all, despite what the other reviewers comments say - I liked the LP when it was released 35 years ago, and unlike the other reviewer who has not heard it in a very long time, I have the CD. Repertoire have done an excellent job of the reissue. Two of the band members went on to 10cc after this - music is very different to 10cc though. I just wish the second Ramases album "Glass Top Coffin" would be remastered and rereleased.

Bizarre But Has Its Charm.......2005-08-13

I bought this album because of the cover. I saw it in a record shop in Spain and it was reasonably priced...

Anyway, I've played it only twice over the past 30 odd years and all I can distinctly remember about it is... "Your the one... you're the only one... over and over again. Talk about self torture with a monotonous ditty!

The rest of the songs are quite depressing, though to be fair, I remember nothing else about them.

I was going through my albums and ran across this one, thus the review. Didn't have a turntable so I could not listen to it. Maybe some day I'll give it a go again.

So much for buying an album based on its cover!

Unless you want to torture yourself with a monotonous chant you can't get out of your head, I'd avoid this. Otherwise... "You're the one... you're the only one... you're the one... you're the only one..."

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