Up there with the cream of the crop of ’70s legendary cosmic disco records, Brian Bennett‘s intergalactic masterpiece ‘Voyage – A Journey Into Discoid Funk‘ has like many underground classics seen its price soar on the second-hand market over the last couple of years, with some copies flying just below the £100 sanity’s threshold on Discogs and a growing audience obliged to stick to youtube’s low-quality stream.
As for Escape From New York’s highly sought-after ‘Fire In My Heart‘ – the ’84-released og 12″ is still sealed with a prohibitive price tag – on-duty speculation-fighter is here again the Adelaide-based Isle of Jura. In the space of two essential reissues it’s safe to say we start owing Tsuba’s Kevin Griffiths a pretty great deal. Initially released in 1978, this six-track space odyssey came as a defining moment in Bennett’s career, initially started as the drummer of Cliff Richard’s backing band The Shadows and pursued as an arranger and producer later in the seventies.
When Bennett evoked in an interview the influence of Brian Eno’s work and the current sci-fi trend that went along the release of the inaugural Star Wars trilogy, that’s where you realise our cultural zeitgeist has gone full-circle. Prophet 5 blazing, still perfectly aligned with today’s retro-indebted aesthetics, the spacey jazz-funk of Bennett’s shines brighter than ever.
Here comes the incredible ‘Pendulum Force‘, streaming in full over our channels, with its beaming outer-space boogie and an intense synth crescendo that could’ve easily made it to Kubrick’s 2001 memorable opening sequence. How come the NASA didn’t send this one out in orbit is still a mystery. The aliens would certainly have picked up on it with the same impatience that shall make it fly off the shelves in a minute on the day of its re-release. Back to a more promising, lovable future, happy to see you again Brian.
The reissue of Brian Bennett’s Voyage – A Journey Into Discoid Funk is released on 17th April, pre-order a vinyl copy from the label’s webshop.
TRACKLIST
A1. Voyage
A2. Solstice
A3. Chain Reaction
B1. Pendulum Force
B2. Air Quake
B3. Ocean Glide
Discover more about Brian Bennett and Isle of Jura on Inverted Audio.