Laika - 'Almost Sleeping'

Recollection Collection......musical memories recalled with affection!

Laika - 'Almost Sleeping' (1997)

I've always had a fleeting interest in astronomy ever since I was about 7 years old when my mum took me to an astronomy night (Seeing Star Wars at 4 years old also certainly helped). Seeing the majesty of the Moon and Saturn with it's rings through a telescope was awe inspiring for a little boy. On Monday, 6th of August a fascinating cosmic event almost went unnoticed in amongst the euphoric hullabaloo of the Olympics.

For once I didn't begrudge my son for getting up at his usual 05h30 calling. In a role reversal, I rushed downstairs with him in tow, fixed us a bowl of coco pops and settled down, blurry eyed, to watch what NASA had dubbed, 'the seven minutes of terror'. A one ton, Mini Cooper sized rover was about to make it's terrifying decent through the Martian atmosphere and if there were indeed any unsuspecting Martians on their way in to work that morning, they were in for a spectacular show. In an incredible feat of human ingenuity and engineering, Curiosity made a series of elaborate manoeuvres in order to break it's ridiculously rapid fall and enable it to make a equally ludicrous pinpoint landing on the surface (Gale Crater). Absolutely bonkers! It was just like a scene from in a Ridley Scott sci-fi film.  

'Seven Minutes of Terror'

As ever, I needed a tune to provide the soundtrack to my cosmic activities and this song fit the bill. As well as the first dog in space (cruel at that) and my parents' cross breed husky, Laika are a pioneering electronic band that I had a brief flirtation with in the mid 90's. The dreamy, 'Almost Sleeping', is a stand out track from their album, Sounds of the Satellites and probably one of my all time favourite tracks. 

The song reminds me of a camping trip in the Mojave desert on a visit to friends in California. It was on a tape I made for that holiday and it was playing through the car's stereo as we were all sat around the fire staring up into the heavens. It had this ethereal feel to it as I lay, in amongst the Joshua trees, complete darkness except for the very distant glow of Las Vegas in the horizon, gazing at a sky with more stars than I have ever seen. Satellites, shooting stars and, situated as it was, only a few miles from Area 51, a fair share of some weird shit too but that was probably all due to the beer.

Perfect stargazing music... 

For the Motherland??!! Pffff....Wait, you forgot to pack my Chewy Bones!!

See the NASA's Mars Exploration Program website here....

rove around some of my favourite tracks here....