Mi-Sex - Space Race

Space Race is the second studio album by New Zealand new wave rock band Mi-Sex, originally released in May 1980 via CBS Records.

Mi-Sex formed in 1978 in New Zealand with members Steve Gilpin (vocals), Don Martin (bass), Kevin Stanton (guitar), Murray Burns (Keyboards) and Richard Hodgkinson (drums).

They located themselves to Sydney and soon found themselves one of the city’s biggest live drawcards and soon came to the attention of CBS Records label A&R Manager and Producer, Peter Dawkins. He produced their debut album Graffiti Crimes, which became a huge success in both Australia and New Zealand, driven by the success of the single “Computer Games”.

Their second studio album Space Race was again produced by Peter Dawkins and reached #1 in New Zealand and #5 in Australia. Three singles were released from the album, the first was “People”, which reached #3 in New Zealand, and #6 in Australia.

The second single “Space Race” cracked the Top 30 in Australia and Top 20 in New Zealand. The third single “It Only Hurts When I’m Laughing” reached #84 on the Australian singles chart.

The record label launched a promotional campaign with the slogan 'Are you a clone? . . . No, I'm in the Space Race'. Little rubber alien mannequins as featured on the front cover popped up all over the place.

The album was a concept album, about the future of humanity in an age with emerging technologies. This was quite a departure for the band from their debut and perhaps some of the music critics thought that a so called “new wave” band producing a “concept album” didn’t quite fit the new wave genre of music. Nevertheless, it was still another strong album with unique and distinctive cover artwork.

Check out the tracks:  “People”; “Space Race”; “It Only Hurts When I’m Laughing”; and “I Don’t Know”.

This LP record is a 2018 Record Store Day limited edition on black vinyl with inner sleeve, pressed in Australia via Sony Music.