In the 17 years since its auspicious start, plenty has happened to Spacehog—some of it not so great. And still, the group’s new release, As It Is On Earth (Hog Space), carries on almost as if there were no gaping 12 years of dead air since the 2001 release of the band’s last album, The Hogyssey. As It Is On Earth displays none of the derivative Bowie/T.Rex laziness of its predecessor, while harnessing manageable doses of the antsy experimental energy that fueled Resident Alien’s expansive 1998 follow-up, The Chinese Album. Spacehog frontman Royston Langdon will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the band.
Royston Langdon: It sometimes aggrieves me that most tourists don’t venture outside of London on their visits to the U.K. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life there, but you could do a lot worse than venture up the M1 to Yorkshire. The unrelenting moisture gives way to a unique kind of greenery, and Leeds, York and Ilkey are well worth a visit. You shouldn’t leave the place without a visit to Bryan’s Fish And Chip shop in Headingley, not to mention the famous cricket ground. I’ve been working on a personal film project in Scarborough, an old post industrial seaside town. It’s the kind of place that only Victorianism could create, and so I have found myself there quite often of late filming the fisherman and generally documenting this dying breed. It encapsulates all that is the best of that long-gone era, romantic whilst quaintly parochial, proud heritage all wrapped up in one. Head a little further inland and find where Hockney has been finding his inspiration of late. The completely undiscovered Yorkshire Wolds. Interestingly, Yorkshire has given birth to it’s fair share of other great artists: Henry Moore, Damien Hirst, Barbara Hepworth, to name a few. There must be something in the water.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZxR2LEYJ8U
