Tuesday, 09 December 2008
A curious experiment? Oklahomas craziest export finally release the seven-years-in-the-making “Christmas On Mars”. The long feted, made-in-the-back-garden, black and white, budget basement Sci-Fi 'epic' evokes the spirit of an ancient age. In many ways, this 90 minute miserablist Sci-Fi sketch resembles a cross between a depressed Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Dark Star. The plot is minimalist, the acting is appalling, the production values cheap. The plot is suggestive, operating on an emotional and thematic level as opposed to anything logical or development-driven, connecting a set of vague vignettes to create an impressionistic whole. Overall, it's neither as convulted, pretentious, or expensive as 'Southland Tales', but as a film it's nothing amazing. Then again, it's not as rubbish as any of The Beatles movies, either.
Face it, if this hadn't been the brainchild of the band it would have sunk without trace and consumed the weekends of a pretentious nutter for years to be forgotten about. As it stands, though, “Christmas On Mars” gains an exposure by association and not on it's own merits.
Victoria Beckham writes piss-poor books. Well, I say writes, but you can't be a writer if you've never read anything longer than a newspaper article about yourself. Russell Crowe and Steven Seagal have their own, crap, bands. Oh, and one of The Rolling Stones is a painter. It is this – diversification, if I were using 'management' speak – that devlues the work : it gains an access because of who, and not what, the work is.
“Christmas On Mars” is an OK film, at best, destined for obscurity were it made by anyone else. It's obviously the vanity project, a work of passion, a labour of love, but it isn't very good really. It's nowhere near The Flips “Battlefield Earth” or “The Clown Who Cried”. But it isn't anything great either.
On a musical front, the soundtrack album (handily enough, the film is packaged on DVD with a CD of the soundtrack) is an interesting, leftfield direction. Eschewing The Flips vocal stylings of pounding, humanitarian, space indie-rock, the soundtrack resembles a set of instrumental Pink Floyd outtakes.
One of their ancient B-sides was called “Galactic Melancholy”, which is exactly what this album is – a short, 32 minute, set of evocative sound, made of sweeping, unusual string movements, tinkles and atmospheres, all combined together to form one cohesive piece divided into twelve parts. Astute fans of the Flips will recognise at least three songs from old b-sides several years ago, albeit retitled. “Syrtis Major” reappears here as “Space Bible With Volume Lumps”, whilst “Xanthe Terra” is reworked. (If you never bought the singles years ago, this is all irrelevant!)
Don't go into this expecting another Flaming Lips album of cosmic space rock – instead, it is a relatively short soundtrack of instrumental soundscapes and recurrent themes that makes for an experimental accompaniment to a dull commute or a clifftop walk. As a listening experience, it is challenging. I can't help but feel that, with 45 minutes of unused space on the disc, that the soundtrack feels scant and small. Especially when a couple of songs originally planned for the soundtrack and released as such years ago are ommitted in favour of silence. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I think the band may have been better served by creating a longer, and more diverse set of material.
Overall, “Christmas on Mars” is a brave but not entirely successful experiment that challenges one preconceptions, and provides excellent value for money if you purchase the film and soundtrack set. It is another interesting step on their journey, and one can hope that the trend set by the band for a prolific and intruiging period is maintained by wherever they go next.Only registered users can write comments.
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