The Moonlandingz use well-placed techno beats, synths, and mayhem on No Rocket Required to explore the band’s storyline further.
The Eccentronic Research Council’s (ERC’s) 2015 album is about the story of a female stalker fan obsessed with Johnny Rocket, her favorite musician from her favorite band, Moonlandingz. To conceptualize the album, the ERC got Saul Adamczewski and Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family to play in the fictional band. They decided to then make the band a reality, and The Moonlandingz was born.
The Moonlandingz are a semi-fictional English band that got their start in 2015 with their debut EP and released their debut album in 2017. The Moonlandingz members are Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer from the ERC and Lias Saoudi (Johnny Rocket) of Fat White Family. No Rocket Required is the band’s second full-length album.
The first track on No Rocket Required is “Some People’s Music” (feat. Ewen Bremner). This track is a spoken word song with a percussive, synth-heavy instrumental. The introductory lyrics, spoken by Ewen Bremner, discuss how music can change how people feel about other people and the world around them. The lyrics also describe the feelings, such as misery and pain, associated with “some people’s music.” The track ends with Ewen Bremner yelling to turn the music off as singing background vocals grow louder.
Track two is called “The Sign of A Man.” The track features a deep, slightly distorted, growling voice that elicits an almost eerie feeling. It also has a higher pitched, more upbeat voice that only sings “It’s the sign of a man, what you don’t understand,” which are the last lyrics heard before the track fades.
Track eight is called “Give Me More.” The track begins with percussion and a techno-sounding instrumental, and the intentionally shaky vocals add some dimension to the song. The last things heard on this track are the lyrics “give me more” and a similar instrumental as heard at the start of the track.
The ninth track is called “Stink Foot” (feat. Jessica Winter). Starting with an attention-grabbing techno instrumental, this track plays into the semi-fictional nature of The Moonlandingz as a band. “Stink Foot” does this by addressing the character Johnny at the beginning of the track.
The last track on this album is “The Krack Drought Suite (pts 1-3).” With a runtime of nine minutes and forty seconds, this track has the longest runtime on the album. The track has moments of peace amid pure chaos, and as a result, is a good representation of the album as a whole. The last portion of the track is spoken in a calmer-sounding voice.
With ten tracks that all have unique qualities, The Moonlandingz’ No Rocket Required is characterized by vocals and instrumentals that mesh in a way that is intentionally hectic in nature with some moments of peace mixed in. No Rocket Required is out today. The No Rocket Required 2025 tour kicks off onMay 7.
