Michigan's space rock scene in the '90s was a thriving but self-contained community. While much of Detroit's musical landscape was split between ravers enjoying a high point in their scene and leather-clad rockers ambling towards the garage rock revival the
White Stripes
would usher in just a few years later, a small but committed sect of Michigan musicians were making sounds more akin to pedal-abusing shoegaze bands, ambient pop, and synth-dabbling Krautrock.
Southeast of Saturn
is a loving curation of just some of the groups from the state's vibrant mid-to-late-'90s space rock scene, offering a great place to start discovering a movement that mostly kept to itself while it was happening. While the majority of the bands represented here remained obscure even by indie standards, the compilation highlights the versatility in the scene by including better-known acts along with some of the rarer artifacts of the era. Contributions from the always impressive
Windy & Carl
,
Fuxa
Auburn Lull
, and
Asha Vida
will perhaps be the most definitive inclusions for most listeners. These groups were some of the more visible talents associated with Detroit experimental electronic label
Burnt Hair
, whose handcrafted 7" single releases helped document the scene as it happened. From the
family,
's "Eskimo Summer" and
Miss Bliss
' "Grey" bend traditional rock arrangements through dizzying webs of reverb and echo, while
Children's Ice Cream
's shadowy instrumental "By the Hand of God" and
the Delta Waves
' accurately named "Andromeda Drone" explore vacuous dark ambient soundscaping. As pivotal as the more experimental
-related artists are to the comp,
also includes a healthy cross-section of other applicable bands from the era. There's breathy shoegaze alt-rock from
Majesty Crush
, goth-tinged rock sprawl from
Naming Mary
, drifting lo-fi melancholia from
Glider
, and "youreyesimmaculate," a track from
lovesliescrushing
so saturated with reverb the vocals and instruments barely peek out from the beautiful fog they're wrapped in.
runs for almost 80 minutes and goes deep into excavating a largely undocumented part of Michigan's always boundary-pushing music history. While the 19 bands here represent both better-known and lesser-known players, this only scratches the surface in regard to all the exciting bands and spaced-out experimenters who were active at the time. We can only hope that this is the first of multiple volumes dedicated to honoring a moment in music that's just as rewarding and strange decades later. ~ Fred Thomas