Man or Astro-Man? claim to be extraterrestrials who crash-landed on Earth and began playing music. Since the group's alternate story isn't as interesting (some college guys from Auburn, Alabama form a band), let's presume this intergalactic ensemble is the real deal. Seen in that light, Beyond the Black Hole does make a true artistic statement: Aliens love surf music.
Clocking in at 28 minutes, the 12-song album is a compilation of sorts, mixing tracks from the near-decade-old band's out-of-print, Australian-only 1997 release What Remains Inside a Black Hole? with some more recent tunes. Nonetheless, the disc has a unified feel — though, admittedly, unity isn't a major problem when you're talking about a rigid genre like instrumental surf.
Man or Astro-Man?'s songs tend to start with pseudo-scientific dialogue sampled from 1950s B-movies, but the music itself is deceptively simple. Guitarist Star Crunch has some flaming fingers, often running through complex chords, awkward arpeggios and time changes with impressive ease, as on "The Vortex Beyond" (RealAudio excerpt). Meanwhile, drummer Birdstuff provides a suitably primitive beat, and bassist/sampler maven Coco fills in the rest with energetic playing. While the aliens claim to use fantastic technology from space, one suspects they secretly have some tremolo and reverb effects set on high with the knobs ripped off.
Songs range from the Brian Setzer-like "Polaris" to the Peter Gunn-goes-Western "The Quartermass Phenomena" (RealAudio excerpt), but twangy guitar remains a constant throughout. Coco's clever sampling helps differentiate the tunes, especially tracks like "Surf Terror," which pauses for a bloodcurdling female scream. Following surf tradition, every song is performed sans vocals, except for "Green-Blooded Love" (RealAudio excerpt), a show-stopping cavestomp whose only lyrics are its chanted title.
Considering that many people today only know surf music from TV themes like "The Munsters" and "Hawaii Five-O," this album may well have come from another planet. While Beyond the Black Hole occasionally gets repetitive, Man or Astro-Man? do their best to keep a neglected genre alive and wet.
