It?s about time labels got inspired by trading cards! I?ve been e-caught once or twice extolling the virtues of baseball cards with all this ?limited-edition? and ?trades welcome? type of talk around here. First, I hear Bread and Animals was giving out basketball cards with one of their releases. Now, northern neighbors Fang Bomb out of Sweden drops ?Fuglesang, Astronaut? a commemorative seven-inch hailing, yes, the first Swedish astronaut, Christer Fuglesang. This average-looking Euro dude (I?m sure of genius intellect) sits on the front cover nicely, freshly minted in astro suit complete with a spacewalking grin. The insert is a NASA approved stat sheet with lots of arcane shorthand and acronyms about his impending (perhaps, past) space flight. Two Swedes contribute a track apiece dedicated to and inspired by our humble outer-space Argonaut. I just noticed; even the sides are dedicated to the super-Earth Swede?s initials! Side C belongs to Dead Letters and this guy has no problem filling that void. I love the hell out of this track. I played it thrice-over the first time it hit the turntable like a 50s teenie-bopper with an Elvis 45. One of the Dead Letters stats on the back cover reads ?INS: Hawkwind?; hell yeah. Lone member Thomas Ekelund brings it heavy as soon as the needle hits with 60s space synth, lots of distortion, and a little noise grit rubbed into the creases just to fuck with you that much more. About halfway through, this track splits open with a subdued organ melody and bass drum globs making the most of the six-minutes. Side F is handed to Ronnie Sundin who takes a different tact with micro-noise and feedback with some unintelligible babble eventually giving way to a massive wall of brown-out distortion. There?s a lot of movement in this track, though not a whole lot of progression. While tilted toward the obnoxiously abrasive, getting even more unbearable as the side moves on, the track still succeeds on its ?INS: Sun Ra? mission, hooking us up with joyful noise in celebration of their Swedish space hero. Overall, this is a great release that is just a hilarious addition to any seven-inch collection. Seriously, all these dark, psychedelic covers than a big portrait of a Swedish astronaut?Classic. 7/10 -- Kenneth Zubiate (7 November, 2007)