This album first came to my attention due to the glowing praise of Mr. Mike Patton, who proudly stated this was the greatest album ever made, gaining the highest recommendation he could possibly give. I checked it out, and lawks if he isn't right!

The sleeve-liner describes the music as "ziemlich strange und eigenartig," and I couldn't agree more. The album is the soundtrack to a 1966 Bavarian sci-fi series set aboard the spaceship Orion VIII. It is the year 3000 and all political problems on Earth have been solved. Phew! A single world government has been established and mankind now lives on the bottom of the sea, but is constantly being pestered by aliens. Enter the Space Patrol in their faster-than-the-imagination-can-comprehend vessel to save the day.

The music, from the legendary Peter Thomas, is nothing short of breathtaking. It uses jazz as its fundamental base, with layer upon layer upon layer of avant-garde composition turning it into something unique and pants-wettingly amazing. The final result is incredibly quirky and fun, maintaining a constantly upbeat mood whilst simultaneously creating a tense and unsettling atmosphere. The entire album is full of surprises, and the songs never behave how you expect them to. The bachelor-pad lounge feel will be built up to the point where it becomes familiar, before the entire track disappears down a jazz-fusion side-road you thought couldn't possibly exist. Easily one of the most eclectic albums I've ever listened to, Raumpatrouille contains elements of almost every genre of music I could name, and many that I couldn't. Peter Thomas' trademark 'spy jazz' music is evident, nestling in with bossa nova melodies and even lullabies to fill out an ingenius collection of sounds.

The opening track, 'Raumpatrouille', begins with the first ever vocoder in music history, before diving into a brass-oriented jazz excursion, perfect as the soundtrack to a Bond film. Punctuated by toe-tapping organ riffs and ethereal backing vocals, this is one of the catchiest opening songs imagineable, and sets the tone for the rest of the album, whilst also being quite misleading with its lack of mind-bending deviation from the norm.

'Shub-A-Dooe' takes the baton and runs with it, offering us disembodied scat-vocals above a looping organ rhythm, with no trace of a chorus whatsoever. The song is drastically at odds with its predecessor, and only serves to highlight the vast range of styles on the playlist.

'Lancet Bossa Nova' is much more typical of the album, featuring several contrasting melodies competing with one another directly. It begins as a fairly standard jazz piece, before being swamped with interludes from a whole host of instruments, before the entire chorus is hijacked by a saxophonist who sounds as though he wasn't even invited. Such is the disparate nature of Peter Thomas' incredible orchestration.

'Love In Space' is one of my favourite songs of the album, featuring an echo'd saxophone playing a haunting, saddened melody, completely alone. After one 'verse', the bass joins in as accompaniment, but only manages seven notes before the entire song becomes a random explosion of jazz, white noise, and what sounds like someone banging pans together. This ends as abruptly as it started, and the other instrumentalists continue with their song, as if these interruptions were entirely common, which in this case, they are.

'Ballet' makes no sense whatsoever. Violins and horns take it in turns to confuse the listener, with the latter only ever playing one note, repeatedly, for different lengths of time. The 'chorus', if it can be called that, is excellent, and just as you're looking forward to hearing it for a second time, the song decides to quit and finish.

'Bolero On The Moon Rocks' is one of the best songs on the whole album, and is often rightly described as a masterpiece. The balance of ghostly wordless vocals and moody brass riffs is perfect, complimenting the stuttered beat to create an incredible song that stands out like a diamond amongst thousands of almost equally staggering diamonds. Both conceptually astounding and aesthetically great, this song is excellent.

'Landing On The Moon' is two songs in one, a favourite technique of Thomas', and the likes of Mr. Bungle after him. The first is tense and suspenseful, creating an atmosphere of danger, before a brief pause. Suddenly, out pops the second song, a jaunty, dapper little lounge number that sounds like the long-lost mother of all supermarket music. The listener is once again left with furrowed brow and a faint smile of enthusiasm.

'Outside Atmosphere' makes even less sense than 'Ballet,' with several layers of scratchy noise underneath the rhythms. The song opens with a tune that conjurs images of Peter Sellars comedies and bumbling burglars, and then shifts into a supernatural sounding interlude, before wallowing in fast-paced orchestral jazz of an impossibly tense nature. The whole thing simply works and it all meshes together to create a truly brilliant song.

'Take Sex' is possibly even better, and is definitely the best song with the worst name I've ever heard. A black man with a very black voice warbles into the microphone, walking the tight-rope between yodelling and soulful gospel, while instrument after instrument join the song, one by one. A harpsichord twangs the rhythm in the background, suffocated by the vocals until an assortment of stringed instruments help lift it above his voice. This is an awesome song, which deserves to be a lot longer than it is. Every time I hear it I'm left with a sense of disatisfaction as the song ends after two minutes, rather than building to a crescendo. That said, the sense of anticipation does help the overall enjoyment of the album, and makes it a much more personal experience. Perhaps I should be grateful.

As an added bonus, the album now comes with three unreleased songs from shortly after the original album's release. All three are shockingly good, and make an incredible addition to the record. Each is surprisingly upbeat, whilst technically impressive in their own individual right. 'Hedono' is actually one of my favourite tracks on the whole album, with a central theme that's so beautifully written and flawlessly arranged that it easily qualifies as one of the best songs of the bunch, and never, ever fails to impress me.

There are simply too many songs to single out and discuss, although I've tried my best. The album is absolutely brimming with excellent songs, whether you're into the conceptual and experimental or simply adore big band orchestration and small ensemble composition. The magic of the music lies in the seemingly impossible combination of startlingly bizarre dissonances with outrageously catchy themes. Combined with quite possibly the best production values of all time, this is an album that you simply have to own. The mere thought of a record collection devoid of Raumpatrouille makes me weep with grief. How can you do this to me? Have you no soul? Buy it now! Trust me, you I won't regret it.

Insound.com