TOP 5 SCIENCE FICTION SONGS

1. Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst

Kool Keith created this morally stunted, intergalactic sawbones back in 1996. Dr. Octagon was born out of curious stock, his uncle Mr Gerbik was half shark, 208 years old and covered in alligator skin. The Dr. himself was fudged together with yellow eyes, green skin and a pink and white afro. He worked as an 'extraterrestrial time traveling gynaecologist and surgeon from planet Jupiter' - able to cure 'chimpanzee acne' and 'moosebumps', but sadly known for his malign incompetence with patients, many dying during surgery.

Doctor Octagon has been assassinated by drowning, stabbing, electrocution by way of electric razor and a plethora of other macabre endings. But it seems Dr. Dooom has put the final nail in the coffin, and contrary to record label enthusiasm is unlikely to make a resurrection.

Dr. Octagonecologyst has made its way into this Top 5 for the vision and brilliance it emanates in surreal sonic fulminations from beginning to end. If you've never listened to the album, go and do it.


This collaboration with producer Dan the Automator is the best outing by any in the panorama of characters involved over the years. 

Below we've slapped the mind-boggling track 'Biology 101' feat. Chewbacca Uncircumcised - enjoy.

2. Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater

This track was released back in 1958 and reached No. 1 in the Billboard pop charts. It is Sheb Wooley's finest hour, which testifies to its quality considering he was in Rawhide with Clint Eastwood. The story follows a creature, descended from the voids of space, hellbent on eating purple people and joining a rock n' roll band. Let's turn to Sheb for the whole saga:

"Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree

I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me

I heard him say in a voice so gruff

I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough

It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater

One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater

One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater

Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)

I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line

He said it's eatin' purple people and it sure is fine

But that's not the reason that I came to land

I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band"

Great stuff, now get this shit on your playlist - stat!

3. Ennio Morricone & John Carpenter - The Thing Theme 

This track is fucking enormous! The legendary composer Ennio Morricone wrote this opus for John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi flick 'The Thing'. Carpenter usually monopolised the scores to his movies but knew Morricone to be something of a genius. It's ghoulish vitality has influenced scores of other writers, winner of 'Livemusic's Best Dance Act of 2011' - Kavinsky - often sites The Thing and Morricone as huge inspiration.

4. Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy

This was Daft Punk's first foray into film scoring. The french duo prove, unequivocally, they are the kings of contemporary electronics as we follow them through the luminous vistas of 'The Grid'. Their similarity in appearance to the characters inside the fictional digital realm are remarkable. It leaves one wandering if Daft Punk are in fact time travelling, inter-dimensional creations from Skynet. Either way this other wordily score is a worthy winner of this Top 5 position.

5. Joan Baez - Silent Running

I was trying to avoid using another film reference but this beautiful moment is tough to fight shy of. When Joan Baez sings 'Rejoice In The Sun' in the 1972 flick 'Silent Running', the music draws the listener from the straw-folk ravines of the past and plops them deep in perihelion apex of the future.

Baez trills over patchwork edits as the film's protagonist roams about the geodesic domes, in the orbit of Saturn. It is his quest to repopulate planet Earth with plant life and activate the reforestation after humankind caused the extinction of all flora and fauna.

"Tell them what they love will die,

Tell them why in the sun."

Thanks Joan x

Source: livemusic.fm