Serpentina Satelite - "Mecanica Celeste"
(Rocket Recordings 2010, LAUNCH 038)

From Aural Innovations #41 (October 2010)

Many bands in the psychedelic/space rock genre attempt to create music that, rather than just describing the experience, is, in itself, mind altering in a way. If anyone has come close to that, it's Peru's Serpentina Satelite. With layers of delayed, phased, freaked out guitars, echoing snippets of vocals and gurgling, squalling electronics all barely being held together by a hyperactive rhythm section, this is truly disorienting, hallucinatory, mind bending music. In a dark room with the headphones on and a bit of imagination, one would not need any kind of chemical enhancement to be swept away into another dimension of reality by the sounds on Mechanica Celeste. This is some truly inspired space rock here. The closest I could compare it to is Ash Ra Tempel's Amboss. The music here definitely has a similar intensity to it, but gets into a much more wide open headspace, exemplified by the first three tracks (Fobos, Sangre de Grado and the title track) on the album (a total of 22 minutes). The listener gets a brief reprieve then with the ritualistic, but no less hallucinatory sounding Imaginez Quel Bonheur Ce Sera De Voir Nos Chers Disparus Ressuscités!, before the churning, grinding heaviness of Ai Apaec kicks in to pummel his or her already rattled senses. This one has a more earthy vibe to it though, bringing the sonic traveller back to somewhat solid ground, close to their home dimension before the final assault begins with the 11-minute Sendero (which means footpath). But this footpath is no earthly footpath. It leads to a final dimension of quasi-religious heaviness, as it slowly builds from a sweet little song sung by children through a stately march into a frenzied rush of metallic madness and finally a swirling, pulsing ghost realm punctuated by a final hymn. This music is transcendent in the truest sense. The promo sheet says Serpentina Satelite tried to reach Heaven but ended up in space. Maybe they found both. At any rate, Mechanica Celeste is one powerful document. Original, compelling, mind liquefying space rock of the highest order. Don't miss this one!

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

And another opinion.....

The space rock band from Peru are back with their third release. This time the album is released on Rocket Recordings, who has also released White Hills and the Heads among others. The record is 6 tracks in 43 minutes. The first track is a powerful high energy instrumental space rock track with some very cool guitar parts. Sangre de Grado starts with some old school Hawkwind like audio generator signals before spiralling out into a very psychedelic universe, from which the band never returns. The title track is next and it is starts with a strange freakout with some crazy vocals and delays and lots of synths before it really takes form and the band are flying into space once again. Very psyched out stuff. The next track has a really long title which I won't type out. Let's just call it Imaginez. It is quite short and a mixture of male and female voices, minimal drums and some electronics. It leads into AI Apaec. This track has a slow build up with a loudly mixed wah delay guitar in one side and a lead solo going in the other as the electronics spill around the side. Slow and spaced out stuff. Sendero, the last track, has quite a more aggressive attack after a slow build up in this 11 minute track. These guys have come back and made a pretty damn cool record. I hope this one is released on vinyl. The bio says they plan to come to Europe. Let's hope so.

For more information you can visit the Serpentina Satelite web site at: http://www.myspace.com/serpentiasatelite
Visit the Rocket Recordings web site at: http://www.rocketrecordings.com

Reviewed by Scott Heller

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