This-here item is no fanzine, it's a magazine, one I purchased from a newsagent very close to nine years ago. I'm not sure why I have such a keen recall for these things, but I bought this the day before going away on a beach holiday over the Easter of 2014, an impulse-purchase from my local 'agent because it's not often you see such names screaming at you from the front cover of a publication in such an outlet: CHROME, GONG, JOE MEEK, ASH RA TEMPEL, AMON DUUL II et al. Of course, there is the occasional specialist issue of MOJO or other such magazines which give similar coverage, but this was a concentrated and dense slice of goodness and clearly an easy beach-read.

This is a 'special issue' of Shindig! magazine, the British periodical I've bought a number of issues of over the years, and one I would certainly recommend (it's really not that far removed in its coverage from Ugly Things), and in my opinion the best newsagent-ready music publication currently existing. The topic in question is, of course, SPACEROCK... or SPACE-ROCK... or even SPACE ROCK, if you will. 

It's hard to fault this issue - all 172 glossy pages of it! - so I won't. It doesn't put a foot wrong. Its coverage of space-rock (or 'cosmic music' or whatever you wish to call it) is so all-encompassing and exhaustive, and so well done, that it stands as a top-shelf compendium on the topic.

The bulk of it appears to be written by editor Austin Matthews, but there contributions from everybody from UK author and veteran music scribe Kris Needs to Jerry Kranitz from Strange Attractors Audio  House to, again, my old buddy Chris Stigliano, who reviews Von Lmo's incredible Future Language LP from 1982 (and props to Chris, I guess, because it was his endless spruiking of this masterpiece that first alerted me to it way back in the day).

No stone is left unturned: Hawkwind, 'Floyd, Gong, Pink Fairies, Cluster/Harmonia/Neu!, Sun Ra & Funkadelic, Joe Meek and the story of "Telstar", US 'out' psychedelia, Heldon, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop & Delia Derbyshire, a Jonny Trunk piece on sci-fi soundtracks, Loop/Spacemen 3 (I vote Loop, but I'm fine with both - I believe this war called a truce decades ago), contempo (at the time) space-rock from Vibravoid, White Hills, etc., even a page-long article on the almighty F/i(!). And more. And more.

Also of note is the four-page article on "Space-Prog", which covers Yes and Rush. I have unashamedly become converted to the finer works of both bands in the past 6 or 7 years, and you're simply going to have to deal with this fact, because if you can't enjoy the over-the-top inventive sonic fun that both bands brought to the table during their primes (for Yes: 1971 - 1974; for Rush: 1975 - 1981), then that's your problem, not mine. I'm willing to concede that both outfits are hampered by their 'difficult' vocalists and would possibly sound better as purely instrumental outfits, but I've become accustomed to the falsetto choirboy harmonies of Jon Anderson and the screech of Geddy Lee and can now comfortably deal with both. Author Marco Rossi wisely places them in the lumpen, suburban bracket of cosmic music but does a fine job in justifying or explaining his fandom, because a defensive position is not required. 

For Yes's most outward-bound kosmische moment, I would recommend "The Ancient/Giants Under The Sun" from Tales Of Topographic Oceans; and while I'd say that Rush rarely ever really got too 'cosmic' in their prog, even with all of their fantastical overtones, the extended math-rock malarky of "La Villa Strangiato", in which you can hear the roots of both Voivod and Family Man-era Black Flag (the B side, thanks!) in its absurdly complicated yet thoroughly rockin' jams, is worthy of an earful or ten.

I actually threw out or gave away all my issues of MOJO, Uncut, The Wire et al last year, other than a few very select (a couple, probably) issues I've retained great affection for, figuring that a 'professional' publication couldn't be worth archiving decades down the track, but I'll hang onto this one. Sure, you could probably look up anything featured here on that very screen you're looking at right now, but as a solid object of reference, it's quite unbeatable.