(previously: Mixtape of the Found Decade)
(previously: Novas 0, Novas 5.3, Novas 5.4, Novas 1, Novas 4, Novas 2, Novas 5.1, Novas 5.2, Novas 3)
It is an alternate 1987. Two years ago, New Wave singers Susan and Jack fled an Earth in the throes of revolution to activate an approaching alien probe. Although they were successful, their stolen spaceship was destroyed by Company agents and Susan was caught in the blast…
Novas 5.5: This Song Sends Love Through
Act 1: Harmonic
01 Rezillos – Flying Saucer Attack (1978, Scotland) THE BYSTANDERS
There's a threat approaching from the stars All the horrors from Venus and Mars Everybody better be on guard When the flying saucers land Watch the skies above the horizon For the spies who have no flies on When they appear through the stratosphere Better lock yourself inside Flying saucer attack! I'm never coming back Oh-oh, until it's over Laser beams and gamma projectors There'll be nothing on Earth to protect us When they arrive in open sky They'll be frying us alive Call up the Army and the United Nations Alert the police and Air Force stations Tell everybody to run and hide Because the end is near at hand Flying saucer attack! I'm never coming back Oh-oh, until it's over
As the alien probe transmits, a wave of UFO sightings causes panic on Earth.
One of the concepts behind Novas is that I wanted a sort of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ feel, in that it would be a kind of cinematic travelogue between levels of reality. So it starts inside a simulation and moves to Earth and then into space. I was happy with how Novas 3 ended but as Novas 5 came together, it seemed like it really wanted to be a set of five. I’d ended Novas 3 on a bittersweet note of tragedy just to balance the extremely laid-back nature of the space scenes, and tnd the obvious place to take the story from where it ended, was bringing all the loose ends back down to Earth, and dealing with the reaction.
The alien-contact themes had been developing since the first cut of Tomorrow (Klaatu’s ‘Around The Universe In 80 Days’) and Susan being the one to die/transcend turned into the clear choice when I realised I had ‘Angel’s Song’ and ‘Northern Lights’.
Flying Saucer Attack is another song I remember from back in the 1980s, a time when I was reading actual UFO stories. It made for an uneasy mix for a pre-teen me but that deep sense of fear is exactly what I wanted to focus this one on. Among other things, this album is about how we project fear onto situations that don’t require it.
02 Bill Wyman – Nuclear Reactions (1982, England) THE PROBE
Look into the night sky
?
Stars in their billions
Every one a sun
Nuclear reactions
Hydrogen and helium
Island galaxies
Oscillating universe
Quasars and pulsars
Neutron stars
Nuclear reactions
Hydrogen and helium
Horsehead Nebula
Somewhere in Orion
Supernova remnant
X-ray source
Nuclear reactions
Hydrogen and helium
Jack’s spacecraft slowly makes its way back to Earth orbit.
Bassist of Rolling Stone, yes, that Bill Wyman. The 1980s was all about second careers for 1960s rockers.
03 Kate Bush – Hello Earth (1985, England) SUSAN
Hello Earth
Hello Earth
With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out, out of sight
Peek-a-boo, peek-a-boo, little Earth
With just my heart and my mind
I could be driving, driving home
You asleep on the seat
I get out of my car
Step into the night
And look up at the sky
And there's something bright
Travelling fast
Just look at it go
Just look at it go
Hello Earth
Hello Earth
Watching storms start to form
Over America
Can't do anything
Just watch them swing
With the wind out to sea
All you sailors
Get out of the waves
Get out of the water
All life-savers
Get out of the waves
Get out of the water
All you cruise ships
Get out of the waves
Get out of the water
All you fishermen
Head for home
Go to sleep, little Earth
I was there at the birth
Out of the cloudburst
The head of the tempest
Murderer
Murder of calm
Why did I go?
Why did I go?
Tiefer, tiefer
Irgendwo in der tiefe
Gibt es ein licht
Go to sleep little Earth
Susan has become an energy being and observes Earth from orbit.
I know, another Kate Bush is pushing it but consider this the bookend to ‘James And The Cold Gun’ that started Novas 5. The apocalyptic, dread-laden feeling didn’t work elsewhere but here that’s exactly what I wanted. A sense of building doom throughout Act 1.
04 Planet P Project – I Won’t Wake Up (1983, USA) JACK
Cold sleeping in zero G
There's nothing else here that I can see
I get this feeling that I'm not alone
It's in the air, I feel it in my bones
Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
Don't make a sound
There's nothing else here, the instruments say
If I don't open my eyes will it go away?
Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
There's nothing out here, that's what they all say
If I don't open my eyes will it go away?
Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
Oh I won't wake up
No I won't wake up
In coldsleep, Jack feels the presence of something alien.
Tony Carey’s science fiction project from the 1980s. In the 2000s he revived tthe Planet P name for an outstanding trilogy (Go Out Dancing) about neo-fascism, nuclear paranoia, and the dark side of capitalism.
05 Jean-Pierre Massiera and Bernard Torelli – Radio Galaxia (1977, France) THE PROBE
Cosmic station
Space transmission
Radio Galaxia high
The probe continues transmitting.
This song is here for it’s unsettling and yet comforting musical theme, which continues in ‘Poor Boy’ and ‘Hitchcock’.
06 Widervision – People (1980, England) SUSAN
Picasso and Renoir and Robert Finch
Say what are you doing here
Da Vinci and Mahler and Vincent van Gogh
Where did you go from here
You tried very hard
but did you succeed
In this forest of ours
did you plant many trees
between you
Did they grow up around you
Russell and Schiele and Albert Einstein
Say are you coming back sometime
Satre, Tolkien and Stockhausen
We just can't turn our backs or can we
We all hit hard
But do we really breathe
Well even in your finest hours
you haven't got to me
Or have, or have you
Picasso and Renoir and Robert Finch
Say hey what you doing here
Da Vinci and Mahler and Vincent van Gogh
Well where did you go from there
You tried very hard but did you succeed
In this forest of ours did you plant many trees
Between you
Did they grow up around you
To obscure you
Vermeer and Goethe and David Byrne
Well say what's moving now
And Hawthorne and Milne and all up there
Well where do we go from here
You tried very hard but did you succeed
In this city of ours did you sow many seeds
Around you
Did they grow up between you
To obscure you
Susan contemplates Earth and makes the decision that she has unfinished business.
Well I feel better about having at least one David Byrne song in the set now.
07 Player One – A Menacing Glow In The Sky (1979, Australia) JACK and THE BYSTANDERS
Oh my
What's that bright light in the sky
It's up about a hundred feet high
What is that light in the sky
What is that light in the sky
Will it chill us
With a menacing glow
It's moving now to and fro
What's that menacing glow
Should we stay or should we go
A menacing glow in the sky
Apprehension as time goes by
A menacing glow will it stay or go
A menacing glow in the sky
Well it's moving
Down to Earth it slides
The colour's turned red on its sides
Alien friend or foe
In a second or two we'll know
A menacing glow in the sky
Apprehension as time goes by
A menacing glow will it stay or go
A menacing glow in the sky
A menacing glow in the sky
A menacing glow in the sky
Jack, returned to Earth, experiences an extremely close-quarters UFO sighting.
The B-side to Space Invaders.
08 Debbie Harry – Angel’s Song (1983, USA/Canada) ENERGY BEING SUSAN
Now for all you'll ever know
That you've never seen me
And someday I'm gonna show
What your wild desire means
Now I only set the stage
Focus lights on me
I make sure the power's on
I'm the scenery
Oh what will the signal be
For your eyes to see me?
Watching offsides as I wait
Just in case you need me
So I still will set the stage
Send my thoughts to you
I'm receiving every wave
Send love, send love through
You know
Love's not what you think
Too weak to stand on
Like quicksand in which you sink
Love is anything you make it
How can I let you feel my love
Feel me
And still feel free?
I may not have the answers now
So what
To be in time is on the beat
Oh what will the signal be
For your eyes to see me?
Watching offsides as I wait
Just in case you need me
So I still will set the stage
Send my thoughts to you
I'm receiving every wave
Send love, send love through
Now I have revealed
exactly why I'm here
I'll be your angel
if you wanna see
how perfect
sharing love with an angel can be
all right
The UFO reveals itself as Susan, although only Jack can see her.
The first part of Debbie Harry’s song from the strange yet charming Canadian animated fantasy Rock and Rule (1983).