Universal Band

I guess they were huge in Europe and Russia but, alas, most Americans probably never heard of the ultimate in French space rock/new wave/prog, Rockets. It was an Italian friend of mine who turned me on to this truly bizarre band, explaining that they were really popular amongst kids, kind of like KISS was in the U.S. Comparisons don't end there, Rockets were known for elaborate stage productions and their trademark silver make-up and campy sci-fi costumes. Upon hearing Rockets I was hooked and immediately set out to get my hands on as much of their recordings as possible. Victory came in the form of a Russian box set found on eBay containing their first six albums on three cds. I learned that Rockets had a career spanning 10 years in which they morphed from a more rocking prog band to a full-on robotic new wave concern ala Gary Numan, Kraftwerk or DEVO. It was a tough call which album to post here as they are all jaw-droppingly amazing, but in the end I opted for "Galactica", a 1992 best of collection that mostly focuses on the bands '80s new wave stylings. I feel it is a good introduction to Rockets, even if it completely ignores material from the bands's first three albums. If people are really interested in hearing this older material I would gladly post some of those as well at a later time. Here:

Here

Here's a video for "Ideomatic" from 1980