Review of "You Are Here" by Jeremy Chick
Subba-Cultcha, November 2004

Litmus - You Are Here

Space rock, it’s a strange thing really. More changes in the time continuim than time changes…Generally it’s the meandering spirit of Stoner Rock mixed with the lysergic psychedelic tendencies of prog rock with a dash of fx-experimentation that would be called dub if it wasn’t made primarily by white men…It’s a strange little genre, only a few bands have really elevated to a status of praise worthiness (Hawkwind, 12 Rods etc) and none really in the last 10 years…until now. Litmus are a bizarre and frankly worrying little band, but full with so many ideas you can’t help but love this album.

Sure the pace rarely changes, and the moog synth they’re using does seem to be constantly on the “bleepy-bleepy space noise” button, but the energy and ferocity this band display makes me wanna be a lazy journo type scum and shout in bold writing “Space rock with Punk attitude”…But it’s ok, I resist. “Dreams of space” is how I’d imagine blur would sound if they got rid of damon and instead of sending their songs up in a hubble aircraft for alien creatures to sit back and laugh at, they send themselves up, all in space suits coloured only in silver (except for their leather trousers they wear outside the space suits).

How this band translate live is something I’m incredibly curious about, but I doubt they’d be amazing unless the mosh-pit was designated a zero-gravity zone and we could all wear moon boots. Go check this band out, they’re on the cusp of something staggering…