- Diaphanous: so fine or gauzy in texture as to be transparent or translucent.
Diaphone(1): a group of speech sounds consisting of all the variants of a given phoneme in all the utterances of all the speakers of a given language
Diaphone(2): a foghorn capable of creating a deep, powerful two-tone siren that can be heard over long distances. Invented by the same engineer who designed the Wurlitzer organ.
Therefore; Diaphanoids: Humanoid aliens, speaking the universal language of disco and broadcasting a keyboard-drenched groove that's both bass-heavy and gauzy, and can be heard from the deepest reaches of space.
Sometimes, stuff is just really aptly named. The Diaphanoids promise an astral trip of disco from Krauterspace, and they deliver with all retrorockets burning. Sparkling Dentaku synths (as on opener "Whoops! Wrong Planet") rub up against elastic Computerlove bass (as on closer "Eau De Space N. 5") with a big lunar cheese sandwich in between.
Highlights include the driving "What the Fuck Do You Want With Us Earthlings," with its surprisingly nuanced melody and k-hole inducing percussion, and the only real vocal track on the disc, "Mermaids of Lunaris," where it turns out the mermaids are actually from Ipanema and belong on one of those Buddha Bar comps. "Where Were You In 5079" takes a Quincy Jones clap-beat, marries it to the loping outline of a Cars melody that unfortunately teases more than it takes off and ends oddly and abruptly.
Like many well-executed concepts, there's not enough to sustain the cosmic Kraftwerk theme for the full LP. The Diaphanoids, for all their exuberance, tossed more than a fair share of duplicate tracks onto Astral Weekends—"Secretly Mercurian" works better when it is called "Escape From Martius 42," and "I'm So Silver" cruises the same astrobahn as "Whoops!" These are great nuggets of spice to drop into a set, but this is one Kessel Run that only the most intrepid of smugglers will endure for a full hour.
The Diaphanoids would probably benefit from more hooks and less atmospherics and a few more wrinkles added to what is overall a pretty homogeneous record. But those quibbles are small and probably irrelevant in the face of what is immediate and likeable about Astral Weekends. In space, after all, no one can hear you complain.
Tracklist 01. Whoops! Wrong Planet
02. Secretly Mercurian
03. Weightlessmotionless
04. What The Fuck Do You Want With Us Earthlings?
05. I'm So Silver
06. Mermaids Of Lunaris
07. Where Were You In 5079
08. Lost In My Room
09. Escape From Martius 42
10. Pretty Radiant
11. Eau De Space N.5