I'm in for #TimsTwitterListeningParty Kaiser Chiefs Employment. History may not consider them uber-cool now but this is BANGER after BANGER after BANGER

I used to listen to this album a lot on my commute from E17 to White City. We saw them live on this tour too #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Always great to see a band touring their first album. You usually get something like 1) every track off the album 2) the two good b-sides 3) one cover version 4) early version of whatever is gonna be lead single off 2nd album #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Immediately had a soft spot for them too, cos when I lived in Leeds I used to go over Elland Road regularly and Lucas Radebe - where they got the name from - was a total legend #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Na Na Na Na Naa its like Supergrass on steroids #TimsTwitterListeningParty

"Lis-T-en" #TimsTwitterListeningParty

"You Can Have It All" has got a lovely sort of Madness/Squeeze throwback feel to it #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Even the clipped vocal delivery has a sort of Suggs vibe to it. Love it. The older I get the more I enjoy life's rich tapestry of musical references and reminders pinging back through the years #TimsTwitterListeningParty

This is a rare album that makes me want to play air drums rather than air guitar or air keyboards. Or maybe I've had a shit day and I just wanna smack things ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

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This album isn't afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve and then just put on a big grin and go for it, is it #TimsTwitterListeningParty

[I meant that as a good thing, that wasn't snark]

Well I can't have the heard the tracks that weren't singles on this for *YEARS AND YEARS* and that was great fun so thank you @Tim_Burgess @KaiserChiefs #TimsTwitterListeningParty

#TimsTwitterListeningParty now switching up for @PSB_HQ "The Race For Space" an album and theme which I

"Hostile flag of conquest" - the people who overthrew their feudal masters within their own country

"Banner of freedom and peace" - the people who arrived and killed off most of the indigenous peoples.

Mmmmm'kay

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I've been endlessly fascinated by the space race as a proxy for politics all my life, growing up in the cold war and assuming I'd die in a nuclear strike on London in 1986 or whenever #TimsTwitterListeningParty

I had a couple of books about space when I was kid, and one of them was a really long guide to the Apollo 11 mission including transcripts of the chat during the flight. It was all so black and white about them being heroes and explorers etc #TimsTwitterListeningParty

But I don't think it had much context about "the space race" as being anything other than two teams trying their hardest to race for the prize, rather than it being side projects of military developments #TimsTwitterListeningParty

But that's the politicians and the money men. To this day I stan every single man or woman who has strapped themselves on top of a rocket and gone to space. Fuck yeah!!! #TimsTwitterListeningParty

About a decade ago I still had this pipe dream that commercial space travel for civilians might become practical and affordable in my lifetime and I could do it too. Doubt that now #TimsTwitterListeningParty

The production on this album is so so so spot-on - the climax of Sputnik from the humble beginnings of the track #TimsTwitterListeningParty

"Gagarin" is so great, although always expecting that opening fanfare to burst into The Muppets Theme

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I posted this the other day, but about nine years ago I made a track which used the original Radio Moscow announcement of Gagarin's flight. It is a lot less funky for sure. https://soundcloud.com/m-orchestra/good-morning-vostok

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#Gagarin #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Military space travel is labour

I've got to be honest, I always imagine that someone in a meeting was challenged with making space orbits more "exciting for TV" in the mid-60s and they came up with "Why don't they GET OUT OF THE SPACESHIP" because WTF

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Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, only died late last year. The early space race feels like ancient history but it isn't

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Leonov went on to do loads of artworks and painting about being in space. There were some on display in the Russian space programme exhibition at the Science Museum in London the other years #TimsTwitterListeningParty

I mean, once you've been the first person to walk in space and part of the first USA/USSR handshake in space, you surely deserve to be able to retire to painting? #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Valentina Tereshkova is now an MP in the Russian Duma and, oh...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/vladimir-putin-amendment-power-russia-2024

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Valentina Tereshkova was also the subject of this track by Mute Records signing Komputer (also variously known as I Start Counting and Fortran 5) which was like a Kraftwerk pastiche in her honour



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I saw @PSB_HQ at Latitude a couple of years back and the set was a mix of this album and Every Valley and "Go" was just sensational #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Fenton? GO!!!!

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One of the amazing bits of the USSR space programme exhibition they has at the science museum was basically the idea that the Russians lost the race to the moon by being too cautious #TimsTwitterListeningParty

The Soviet plan was that the loss of the cosmonauts would be unacceptable, and so they were intending to send up a back-up lunar module to the moon first, and try and land the men near it #TimsTwitterListeningParty

So that way cosmonauts had two chances of having a ship that could fly back. Then the problem is, what if they don't land near enough the back-up ship? So they were planning to bring a moon rover with them to cover the distance in an emergency #TimsTwitterListeningParty

Obviously the NASA team tried to make the Apollo trips as safe as they could - and there was tragedy along the way - but they went for it on a technical shoestring and took risks the Soviets decided not to #TimsTwitterListeningParty