visit venus / albums

Producer/DJ duo Visit Venus claim that their respective fathers were German-American "sound scientists" recruited by NASA in the '70s. Their mission: Create mood-enhancing music for entertaining space passengers on an imaginary voyage to the second planet from the sun. Though this "Sky Tourist Programm" was soon abandoned, the fruits of the two scientists' labor lived on -- Music for Space Tourism, Vol. 1 is (supposedly) the result of the sons sampling the original tapes that their seniors had tucked away. Who's to say it didn't really happen? If the elaborate liner notes explaining the "project" don't sell you on it, the head-nodding, space-age bachelor pad grooves might be evidence enough. Visit Venus is at its best when operating at a midtempo pace, as on "Brooklyn Sky Port (Departure)," "Shaft in Space," and "Home." The laid-back grooves do get a bit too slow and repetitive at times, as on "One Step Beyond," making the music more boring than blissful. Overall, however, the album serves its purpose of providing a spacy, relaxing, yet deeply funky sonic atmosphere. ~ Darin Eriksen, All Music Guide