Scott Sheppard writes:
The album was eventually released as part of the Japanese "Demos and Lost Albums" collectionCourtesy of Frank Bubnick, I have been listening to Utopia's Disco Jets album. If this album were seamlessly sewn together and remixed in a nondisco fashion, it could be entitled: Ikon II: The Synthesizer Strikes Back.
"Disco Jets" is a combination of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" and "Rock Love." It has all those swirling synthesizers along with Todd's signature guitar work. I had serious deja vu listening to this song. It was sort of like picking out the samples on No World Order.
"Cosmic Cowboy" has guitar work that so closely resembles "The Ikon." The song is a CB-type litany between two space travelers.
"Time Warp" is a funky Herbie Hancock kind of thing.
"V.H.F." is a combination of Donna Summer's "Last Dance" with guitar from "Second Nature." It is punctuated with chirping bird synthesizer riffs like those in "Zen Archer." The whole song reminds me of anything done by Hiroshi Takano, e.g. "When Telepathy Becomes Popular."
I have no idea why they did the "Star Trek" theme. It sounds like the original with "Real Man" synthesizer accents thrown in. The song (probably on accident) speeds up near the middle.
According to Frank, "Pet Rock" resembles "Fahrenheit 451."
"Space War" features the (you guessed it) dualing synthesizer versus guitar riffs a la "Caravan."
"Rising Sign" sounds like another Hiroshi Takano song. It's sort of like a more guitar oriented and sped up "Flamingo."
Other than "The Wheel," I think "Black Hole" is the only Utopia song to feature bongos.
"Spirit of '76" is a string of instrumental songs that go in and come out -- just like "Broke Down and Busted"/"Mystified"/"Broke Down and Busted." All of the songs are patriotic classics.
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