Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
I here present the Italian release of a French space disco single (sung in English) representing the entire musical output of one Akka B, which is really not all that surprising, though still kind of a shame. With lyrics or without?
Cover artist is Francis Bergèse.
Meco (Domenico Monardo) launched the space disco era with Star Wars and other Galactic Funk (1977), which went platinum. He followed with several disco-ized soundtrack albums, including Encounters of Every Kind (1977), Superman and other Galactic Heroes (1978), and Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album (1980).
Music from Star Trek and The Black Hole (1980) didn’t go over well. The movies bombed at the box office, and the original, now classic soundtracks (by Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry, respectively), resisted the transition to upbeat funk. Meco knew it, and faked most of The Black Hole. The main theme is the only track that clearly resembles Barry’s score.
You can listen to Meco’s “Star Trek Medley” here. The entire Black Hole suite is below.
The album art is by Shusei Nagaoka, who did many memorable sci-fi-themed covers throughout the ’70s, including Out of the Blue (ELO) and Raise! (Earth, Wind & Fire).
A German group called Nostromo, following a very curious disco version of the Alien theme in 1979, released a 7″ called The Black Hole in 1980. It’s much more faithful to the original, although I like Meco’s misdirected space-funk a little bit more.
The collision of silver age sci-fi and disco was either Western civilization’s final, total surrender to decadence, or one of our finest moments. Or was it both?
Listen to side one—all the BSG music—here. Side two—“Evolution,” a Moroder classic—is here.
The LP cover artist is Winston Taylor.
(Image via Tuk Tuk)
2 Warps to Neptune 