Space electronica -- grand, complex, lush, and delicious. Mostly instrumental. Debut from the band named after turtlenecked astronomer Carl Sagan. Infused with bird squawks and humor. Sometimes minimal, sometimes dense. This is one unified, 52-minute piece, with each track flowing into the next -- but the transitions do allow reasonable single-track play (you may want to audition the start and end of your track first). Sagan is a local collaboration among Blevin Blectum (born Bevin Kelley. aka D84 and formerly in Blectum from Blechdom), J Lesser (solo sample artist; his Suppressive Acts LP came out on Matador Europe last year) and Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly, prolific solo electronica artist). Also in the band: Ryan Junell, who created the 40-minute video on the DVD that accompanies this CD. No FCCs unless you’re titillated by alien dream imagery. Start with 3, 5, 10, 11.
http://sagan.lsr1.com/

1. Slow and majestic. Very quiet start, and slow fade up as we slip silently along the icy interstellar highway... then our ship breaks through the space dust to reveal a multiple-star system and its multichromatic planets filling the forward window.
2. Spooky and fuzzy. Beats fade in and out. Space wind whistles around our ears as robot transporters carry us along the barren surface. Ends abruptly.
==> 3. Unsettled and threatening. Begins with hesitations, then alien beats and random tones. A metallic melody flows intermittently underneath. We enter a building with enormous ceilings and then descend four miles to the genetic manufacturing unit.
4. Cut-up vocal samples and percussion. Ends suddenly.
==> 5. Busy. Psychedelic/industrial electronica. A regular beat for the first two minutes, then gets wacky, then gets very sci-fi. Blends nicely into next track.
6. Blends well from previous track... play both together if you like. Percussive and blippy. Then gets majestic/bizarre.
7. Cut-up vocal samples and audio collage. Bird squawks. Middle section is quiet noises with random notes and odd effects and the occasional piano figure. Increasingly dense and threatening, with regular (but strange) beat. A bit of cartoonish/clownish sound, more bird squawks, then it’s done (but flows nicely into next track).
8. Starts abruptly with monotonous beat and bird squawks (but flows nicely from previous track). More cartoon/clown music amid the dark sci-fi collage. Gets quiet with spacious noises. Ends with bird squawks and then a weird toy doll sound.
9. Begins with half of that weird toy doll sound. Prominent bass figure over drone and mechanical alien farm noises.
==> 10. Minimal, slow, blippy... becoming a weird dance track.... sort of. More bird sounds (possibly synthetic). Track evolves like a dream after eating too many snacks.
==> 11. Starts with vocal cut-up and bird squawks. Builds and builds. Lots of noisy percussion. The most birdy of the tracks here. Ends with some noise guitar among effects, samples, and birds.
12. Ethereal drones and bird noises. Slow fade. Several seconds of silence at end.