After playing for a time in a punk band, two longtime friends Nicolai Leicher and Sebastian Weisser decided to do their own thing and write and perform music as a duo under the band name Travel In Space. On their latest release on Germany’s Off Label Records, ‘Das Schlagzeug Meiner Mutter’ (the English translation for which is ‘The Drums of My Mother’), Travel In Space create a combo sound of garage punk, psychedelic trash and a touch of new wave which they refer to as moped-soul.

Travel In Space use guitars, sometimes fuzz-drenched and at other times a notch from clean, drums, vocals with a light echo effect, and a few other instruments here and there. Unlike some of the bands in this genre, the twelve songs on Travel In Space’s ‘Das Schlagzeug Meiner Mutter’ are quite different from one another, each one offering the listener something that none of the other songs possess.

Many things stand out about the songs on this album, among them are the sloppy chords and busy note-work on “The Ladder,” the fuzzed-out retro-rock of “School,” the moody psychedelic feel of “Where Are You Going?,” the distorted upbeat weirdness of “Green and Mean,” the psych-roots of “Fox, the dirty energetic punk of “Zigaretten Holen,” and the darkly cinematic “Birds.”

Travel In Space seems to be a perfect fit for Off Label Records. While Off Label releases albums from a variety of genres and subgenres, from roots and rockabilly to garage punk and blues trash, Travel In Space’s sound sits nicely beside label mates Lynx Lynx and The Vagoos.

‘Das Schlagzeug Meiner Mutter’ is currently available from Off Label Records.