Rockets
On the Road Again

THE REVIEW

Perhaps more similar to a freak show phenomenon than a rock band, the Rockets released their second album in 1978: "On the Road Again" would be a great success in Europe and particularly in Italy. The famous blues-rock track by Canned Heat, year 1968, is reinterpreted in a "space" key with hammering synthesizers and vocals filtered through a vocoder, and it gains in rhythm and power. The French group's bold, even silver-faced, stance, but this cover version works, indeed.

The rest of the album is instrumental, except for the last track. "Cosmic Race" and "Venus Rapsody" have a strong melodic character entrusted to the keyboards, while in "Space Rock" (a title that says it all) the electric guitar modified with the talk box effect is heard again. But let's return for a moment to "Venus Rapsody": it could easily be part of Genesis's "Wind and Wuthering," just as certain passages of "Astrolights" seem borrowed from the instrumental solos of "Nursery Cryme." The Rockets as a progressive band? But weren't they a freak show phenomenon?

"Electro-Voice", instrumental with a sung part, reflects the influence of Kraftwerk. Finally, the conclusion is entrusted to "Sci Fi Boogie," where the voice returns (without vocoder) in a wild science fiction boogie with electric guitar and drums in the foreground.

Stylistically very different from another French band active in the '70s, Magma, these two bands take the same space journey but in opposite directions: dissatisfied earthlings, Magma invent a remote planet - Kobaïa - and make it the promised land of their utopia; meanwhile, the Rockets come from space - they don't tell us from which planet - and seek on Earth, on the road, their legitimization. Shaved skulls, silver makeup on their faces, concerts based on laser shows: perhaps, more than a freak show phenomenon, the Rockets were indeed a (space) rock band.