4 out of 5

Label: Au-Go-Go / One Louder

Produced by: Man or Astroman? ?

I can’t claim to know the provenance of these “alternate takes,” but for the many-album/single-spanning career of Man or Astroman, Intravenous Television Continuum, for my intents and purposes, functions somewhat like a greatest hits.  And while such compilations can sometimes rob a group’s output of needed album context, MoA’s surf-rock sci-fi shtick often wears thin when they’ve purposefully stacked up movie samples and riffs; what’s presented here feels very down to business, and MoA are great when they get down to business.

The collection is interestingly lacking in any of their balls-out blitz tracks, but the takes all have an appealingly raw, live sound, and the sequencing – which includes some new (I think) TV tunes (e.g. the Jetsons) – by flipping between laidback jams, some vocals, and some catchy recognizable themes, defeats the stagnation issue many of their discs face.

It’s a great set.  Of course, it’s forever difficult to overcome the limitations of the genre they… maybe pioneered, so the disc can’t quite top just being “fun,” but this is a good candidate for that One MoA disc to own.