Having followed Public Service Broadcasting for a while now, I’m resigned to never actually managing to catch them live. I had tickets once, but ended up in the wrong country at the wrong time, so that didn’t work out. I had to content myself with listening to The War Room EP, or debut sampletastic album Inform - Educate - Entertain.

More recently I’ve been getting down to Gagarin, the bright and breezy lead single for the duo’s second album, The Race For Space, which is out on 23rd February. Having woven audio and video samples from the BFI archive so skilfully and movingly into The War Room, and a variety of samples into their debut album, for The Race For Space they’ve moved ever so slightly closer to the modern world for The Race For Space, turning their attention to the golden age of man’s quest to journey beyond the bounds of the earth’s atmosphere and voyage out among the stars, to see unknown worlds. Or just to beat the other side into orbit and onto the surface of the moon. That would probably be enough.

The Other Side takes audio clips from NASA mission control during the Apollo 8 mission and lays them over a pulsating electronic backing, to create moments that are somehow not only evocative of an era but also tense, nervy, and ultimately euphoric.

Pre-order The Race For Space from PSB’s online store:

http://store.publicservicebroadcasting.net/

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