Science Fiction Music Recommendations: Rush, Leslie Fish, and more (part 1)

Greetings everyone.

I'm thinking of posing more blog articles like this about the stuff that interests me. I'm currently writing this during exam season in university, with a pile of reports, presentations, and exams ahead of me, but I wanted to write a short list about science fiction music.

Sci fi music is often referred to as 'filk', which is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to sci fi, fantasy, etc. It has existed from the 1950s, and they were originally people who gathered around at sci fi conventions to sing.

It's pretty neat. Apart from filk music, I want to include several of great songs/albums/artists here inspired by sci fi. Science fiction has been one of my main obsessions for a long time, and I think I will post more about topics related to sci-fi in the future too.

Anyways, here's the list.

1. Rush

They're a well known prog rock band, and my favorite band as well. They made a lot of albums and songs inspired by science fiction including:

-2112 (an album set in a dystopian world inspired by Ayn Rand's Anthem)

-The Body Electric (song about an android gaining sentience, based on the book 'I sing the body electric' by Ray Bradbury)

-Cygnus x-1 song series (a song about an explorer going into a black hole to become the god of balance)

I enjoy their lyrics, musical complexity, and their philosophical and individualistic lyrics.

2. Leslie Fish

Leslie Fish is a famous filk artist and she composed a lot of music based on science fiction and fantasy. She has a more folk-sy sound, remniscent of 'sea shanties', or, in this case, 'space shanties' Some of my favorites are:

-The ballad of transport 18

-Banned from Argo (a humorous Star Trek fan song)

She also wrote a novelized version of Banned from Argo on AO3, and wrote a lot of fan fics there too. She was born in the 1950s, and have been writing fanfiction during the very early days and I found that fascinating. Although I don't read slashfics that much, I recommend checking out her BFA novelization because it's marked as a gen fic if you're like me.

3. The Mechanisms

They're a newer filk band. They have albums that have a complete story much like rock operas. They have that folksy space shanty sound too. Some of their stuff are:

-Once Upon A Time (in Space) : (A retelling of fairy tales in a futuristic sci fi setting)

-The Bitfrost Incident (an album about an inspector charged with inspecting the disappearance of a prototype train on her maiden voyage. also sci fi, somewhat lovecraftian)

4. Karn Evil 9 trilogy by Emerson, Lake, & Palmer

It's a jazzy prog rock trilogy about a bleak future and a war between humanity and computers. Part 3 is my favorite.

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I will write a part 2 in the future. Thank you for reading my first proper blog entry.