January 11, 1999 17:42

DON'T MENTION THE STAR WARS

Cult German TV composer meets [B]Tortoise, Sain Etienne[/B] and [a]Stock Hausen & Walkman[/a]...

STEREOLAB, High Llamas and Coldcut all feature on a remix album called 'Warp Back To Earth', a tribute come compilation of work by Peter Thomas, a '60s German TV theme composer who is a sort of missing link between John Barry and Esquivel.

Thomas composed the music for German TV show 'Raumpatroille' (Space patrol), a cult sci-fi series about a group of sinister black-clad astronauts cruising around a low budget universe tyyo a soundtrack that sounds like an electronic avant garde combo doing the theme from 'The Sweeney'.

Jarvis Cocker based a song around Thomas's sounds on 'This Is Hardcore' and his work enjoys a certain cache with the avant garde fringe. Every band approached for the project except Air - who were torturing at the time - agreed to remix one of the 29 pieces selected from Thomas's archives.

German bands like Daurefisch, Mina and Sons Of Silence rub tracks with Saint Etienne, Yoshinori Sunahara and Momus. There is a bonus CD of the original works by Peter Thomas from the late '60s and early '70s.