Planet Zebidee

London West End session musician Mike Nicholls, in his persona as Zebidee, offers here an album of electronica inspired by recent discoveries of numerous exoplanets out there in the cosmos. The music details the journey of a sophisticated space probe from Earth as it explores Zebidee, a world with an exotic ecosystem and intelligent life—none of it similar to earthly forms. His beats here tend to be chill, with influences including ambient drum and bass, acid jazz and funk.

As Nicholls has it, his automated probe consists of "a single consciousness controlling bodies equipped for flying, roving the landscape and cruising the oceans." After orbiting the new pink planet, it dispatches its various components, which report back on their findings. It's obvious he enjoys science as well as science fiction and knows something about it, because his "book" is a more intriguing speculative effort than one usually sees with indie releases like this. Here, for example, is part of what he has to say about "Radio Hawk" (3): Bioluminescence is a form of communication in the sky forest as well as the ocean. But the 'birds' luminesce is in the radio spectrum. They have evolved organs which are essentially short wave radios. And so has the hawk. It literally tunes in on its prey—and dives in for the kill. This kicky track is one of my favorites, with its beeping data-beat, wailing ondioline-like "vocal" and sitar samples.

Cue 1, "Descent," starts hesitantly but soon flips into a straight-ahead up-tempo section that ends with the probe splashing into Zebdiee's pink ocean. "Submarine," Cue 2, sets up a dreamy beatbox rhythm with crunching percussion emphases. (As an aside, the Zebidee Web site lists all the many samples used on this recording, along with composers, which is most considerate. Most of these came from Freesound.)

"Do you come in peace?"

"Glass Forest," Cue 6, exemplifies the pleasing tendency here for the tunes to have a toe-tapping beat. It's a drone, kind of swampy, a little techno, a little "garage." By the time the tabla sample kicks in at about 3:20, the rising chord pattern, which seems to be moving around the circle of fifths, has lifted the listener off the chair. Another danceable cue is "Eat My Genes," Cue 7, which one review describes as "porno funk." Not all the tunes have a beat, though; number 8, "Mud Fairies," is a thoughtful exploration of the flying probe's encounter with a strange race of diminutive winged humanoids living in a bubbling plain of mud.

The last cue, 10, "Sentient," consists of questions beamed at the "alien" probe by Zebidee's hive mind, a world-encompassing mat of vegetation. The dilemma the mat faces is simple: Is this visitor friendly or the precursor to an invasion? But the probe isn't answering the hails. ...

Among his influences, Nicholls cites "Serious sci-fi writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Ben Bova and Greg Bear, and the man who showed us planet Earth, the great David Attenborough." Musically he has drawn inspiration from the likes of Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Ennio Morricone, Squarepusher, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Gong, Lee Perry, Jaco Pastorius and many others.

There are some free sample tunes available from the Zebidee official Web site: "Glass Forest," "Beasts," "Descent" and "Desert Rover." It's always good to try before you buy. (Individual tunes are available as downloads from Amazon.com.) Planet Zebidee isn't for everyone. But if you are open-minded and independently motivated, you may find a lot here to enjoy.

- Al