Ancient Astronauts (aka Ingo Möll & Tom Strauch) are not actually from outer space but they have been flying around the underground for some years now. FLY first got to hear them ‘Blowing Up The Barrio’ on the remix of the Fort Know Five back in 2004. And then a couple of years ago a remix of Dr. Rubberfunk’s ‘Watch The Tables Turn’ and then on Electric Nosehair Orchestra’s Northern Faction 4.

So, you might think these guys are from DC, or London or even Winnipeg? No the funky dub hip-hop beats of Ancient Astronauts turn out to be from the city of eau de, Cologne!

Formerly of Switchstance Recordings label, these two DJ/producers are well-known for setting the place on fire with wicked selections of raw funk, Afro, hip-hop, reggae and dope beats. Thankfully, the smell of We Are To Answer is a blend of all this and more.

I suppose pride of place on the collaboration from The Pharcyde and they do what they made their name doing, ‘golden era’ hip-hop on a track called ‘Classic’.

Anyone who’s off to Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide festival next week, should keep an ear open for harp intro to ‘Oblivion’ featuring Azeem and the cuts of DJ Zeph; the hook “give respect and love worldwide”. The Oakland based Azeem lyrics really give you a sense of oblivion that’s in contrast to the Alice Coltrane beat vibe; “spend time wise”.

And to match that one, there’s the upbeat ‘Risin High’ featuring Raashan Ahmad (who we last spotted on Slept On Records’ The Singles 12” with ‘On The Scene’ that also featured Lyrics Born) but there’s no spotting as ‘All The Things You Do’ is a reggae collab with legend Tippa Irie (Mungo’s Hi-Fi, Richie Phoe and many more) in roots ‘all praise to the king’ Augustus Pablo fashion.

A bit of a surprise to have another reggae influence track, featured Bajka (who has been on Compost, BBE, Jazzman, Ubiquity, Tru-Thoughts and was last seen on Aaron Jerome’s Time To Rearrange) but the track I keep coming back to is the hypnotic ‘Lost In Marrakesh’, the soul beat of ‘A Hole To Swallow Us’ and space-funked-up d’n’b of ‘Dark Green Road’.

And the album ends of spacey flute track called ‘Crescent Moon’. Not as jazzy as Emanative (who was Gilles Peterson’s guest this week featuring the album Space) but there’s a spacebeat travelling connections here along with the opening tracks, ‘From The Sky’ and ‘I Came Running’.

Inevitably with so many styles, the CD comes over as a bit of a mixtape which is no bad thing in our book and We Are To Answer has put the Ancient Astronauts on the map.

Reviewed: Ancient Astronauts - We Are To Answer (Eighteenth Street Lounge) Cat. No: ESL 147 Release date: 29th June 2009
Tracklisting:
1 From The Sky
2 I Came Running
3 Classic featuring The Pharcyde
4 Dark Green Rod featuring Ulif Stricker
5 A Hole To Swallow Us featuring Phat Old Mamas
6 Risin High featuring Raashan Ahmad
7 Lost In Marrakesh featuring Entropik
8 All The Things You Do featuring Tippa Irie
9 Everybody
10 Seventh Planet Skit
11 Oblivion featuring Azeem & DJ Zeph
12 Surfing The Silvatide featuring Bajka
13 Crescent Moon

Links:
www.eslmusic.com/artist/ancient_astronauts
www.myspace.com/ancientastronautsswitch
www.myspace.com/phatoldmamas
www.myspace.com/mcazeem
www.myspace.com/raashanahmad
www.myspace.com/switchstancerecordings
switchstancerecordings.de
Gilles Peterson :: 25th June 2009 :: Emanative joins Gilles in the studio
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne