On 17 June 1963, a small boy from Whalley Range shook the hand of the first man in space. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had come to the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers in Brook's Bar to show solidarity with the working men of Manchester. The little boy grew up to be keyboard wizard Dave Formula and this surreal childhood recollection forms the wellspring of an evocative trip through the Magazine man's musical memory of time and place.

Last year's triumphant reunion gigs were a reminder of Magazine's singular freshness of vision and the Gagarin incident helps to suggest why the music they made in the late Seventies and early Eighties remains such a powerful evocation of a future we never quite reached and lent much influence to bands young enough to be their children. The spirit of optimism and possibility of the space-race obsessed early Sixties was mirrored by the birth of punk and the profound effect it had on Manchester - instigated in no small part by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley's legendary booking of The Sex Pistols to play the Free Trade Hall in 1976.

All that excitement is made groovily tangible on the opening 'Elvis in Space', where Formula is joined by Inspiral Carpet's Clint Boon on a mighty mash-up of funking Hammond, loose-fitting dance groove, contemporary Sixties radio broadcasts and Boon's heartfelt exhortation to: "Come on!". Contributions from Formula's bandmates crystallise formative moments - Devoto's magisterial vocals on 'Viva Sacra' were the impetus for the Magazine reunion, Barry Adamson's dub-heavy bass on 'Bison Heard (at the scene)' summons afternoons spent in Paul Marsh's record shop on Moss Side, listening to mento, calypso and Blue Beat imports. Most poignantly, the late guitar genius, John McGeoch, scores the closing 'The Anti-Hero', a kind of ghost 'Telstar' for all those long-decommissioned satellites still orbiting the space junkyard, bleeping into the void.

Formula embraces many different styles, musicians and vocalists as co-conspirators, all of which reflect the cultural diversity and onwards regeneration of Mancunian musicality. Robert Wyatt and current Magazine guitarist John Doyle join forces with Formula on the elegiac 'The World Behind Your Eyes', Wyatt providing both beautifully measured vocals and plaintive cornet. Gospel/R&B chanteuse Lara Rose scatters her talents across the album, waxing feisty on the aforementioned 'Bison Heard', sultry on 'Do It, One More Time' and combining beautifully with acoustic-alt-funk troubadour Jack Broadbent on the title track and 'The Reno'. The only slight blip on the instrument panel is a light, jazzy rework of Magazine's 'Parade', which even David McAlmont's bittersweet tones cannot quite lift into orbit.

Satellite Sweetheart is an aural Pop Art collage of everything that has inspired its creator, complete with sleeve artwork that features a receipt for Formula's first ever Hammond and a depiction of him sitting in a Jetson 's-style kitchen reading The Manchester Evening News (while apparently having breakfast). It is also a testament to absent friends, not only McGeoch but also drummer Mick Yates, who died suddenly after finishing his contribution to the record. And to the ever-open ears, inventive mind and uncontrived charisma of a man who remains singularly un-formulaic.
Cathi Unsworth