This was another Super Flea dig. For more on the enigma that was Super Flea’s record booth read the fist review on Les DeMerle’s Spectrum. I’ll be referencing the place a lot, so get familiar. Onto the record of focus. I pulled Life on Mars out of a dollar bin and stared at it knowing whatever was cut into the vinyl surface had to be deep and cosmic. I wasn’t wrong in the least. When I put it on the first sound to fill the room was a deep growling synth that was immediately orbited by supporting synths. Then disco strings and drums carried the track, A Prophet Named K.G., to a dance floor somewhere on Mars. The only proper way to explain the songs evolution is a blastoff through a wormhole into a disco-interplanetary dimension. You reach Mars and the prophet K.G. assures you life does exist beyond us. Then he sends you back through the wormhole traveling on smooth galactic synth lines that land you safely on Earth to await your next call from mission control. That call is the second track, which is both the title track and a second confirmation that there is without a doubt, Life on Mars. Opening with a duet of spaced out synths you immediately know another journey is already underway. Next a funky lead synth kicks in and is soon accompanied by an equally funky guitar, bass and drums. Then a female lead vocal reminds you of your first ascent to the red planet, “You should be there, it’s so nice, MARS!” Your female companion keeps the reminders coming over the remainder of the track by way of sparse perfectly spread vocal drop-ins. On the third track, Together Once Again, she comes back begging for your company over a smooth synth driven soul buttered ballad. The remainder of the album keeps you on a space voyage with pit stops back to Earth. You love, you laugh, you dance and you do it all while travelling the cosmos. If space is your place dig this record no matter what it takes.
• Released 1976 on Philadelphia International Records
Review by: Def Wax
Def Wax 