The Asteroids Galaxy Tour I'm Online

Dip a toe or two into The Asteroid Galaxy Tour’s debut album, and your mind will conjure up images of downtown Memphis in Outer Space, with a singing siren floating past in a levitating rolltop bath.
Maybe we shouldn’t crush your illusions, but the less than spectacular reality looks more like a tiny studio flat in the Danish capital Copenhagen, where Lars Iversen and Mette Lindberg have managed to create their musical magic out of thin air and a roomful of recording gear. “I have this niche in my room with my bed in it, and a small little passage beside the bed to pass through,“ explains Lars before getting a bit anorak about his peculiar ideas of furniture, “There are blankets covering the walls to dampen the sound, because the acoustics of my apartment are really shit. I have some old tape machines as well that I hook up to my ProTools system, some old microphones and these really amazing wartime German pre-amps full of valves that weigh about thirty kilos and give you that really deep sound.“ And there we were, thinking Scandinavian interiors were all about clear lines and uncluttered spaces.

Granted, the home recording revolution with its zillions of bands touting their wares on Myspace has produced enough dross to choke the planet even if carbon emissions stopped tomorrow. But in the absence of the ticking studio clock, it has also given us colourful gems of unhindered playfulness such as “Fruit“, The Asteroid Galaxy’s impossibly delectable debut. Thanks not least to the open-mindedness of Danish neighbours: “I had four horn players in my apartment,“ admits Lars, “I had to knock on my neighbours’ doors and warn them that I was going to have a horn session for the next two hours. I had a trombone, a baritone sax, a trumpet and a tenor saxophone in there, and it did sound like a big band, definitely.“
That particular afternoon of noise violation produced “Push The Envelope“, a psychedelic showstopper that was going to wrong-foot casual consumers as the B side to the already familiar title track of their “Around the Bend EP“ (the one from the iPod Touch ad), just like their mellotron-flavoured soul-tinged second single “The Sun Ain’t Shining No More“.

But as Mette insists, “Fruit“ has a lot more surprises up its frilly sleeves: “If you’ve heard ’Around The Bend’ or the two singles you haven’t heard anything yet. I can’t wait to get everything out because we have so much to give. Sometimes people ask if we’re afraid of becoming an iPod band or a one-hit wonder. No, we’re not. Because I feel that ’Around The Bend’ is just one of our songs and we have ten great songs. I can’t wait to get it out so people can get the whole thing.“