Antony Szmierek - Service Station At The End Of The Universe

Manchester's Antony Szmierek has always had a knack for finding profound meaning in life's mundane waypoints, and his first full-length record transforms these familiar pit stops into a metaphysical journey that would make Douglas Adams proud.

The former teacher turned word-wielding dance architect hasn't just crafted an album – he's created an entire universe where everyday characters cross paths at his imagined Andromeda Southbound services.

The album opens with its title track, a swirling blend that introduces us to an ensemble cast including a hen party, a wandering yoga teacher, and star-crossed lovers who could have stepped out of a Mike Leigh film. These characters weave through the record like threads in a cosmic tapestry, their stories intersecting and diverging with the precision of orbital mechanics.

The production throughout is masterful, echoes of musical heritage scattered throughout, but in a way that never feels derivative. Instead, Szmierek has absorbed these influences and reassembled them into something distinctly his own. 'The Great Pyramid of Stockport' might be the album's creative peak, turning a local landmark into an existential meditation on permanence and legacy. It's preceded by 'Rafters', where "the Patron Saint of Withington" meets "a pound shop Geri Horner" in a love story that somehow manages to be both ridiculous and deeply moving.

The record closes with 'Angie's Wedding', a euphoric finale that brings the whole cast back together in what might be heaven, might be a wedding reception, or might be both. The Orbital-inspired synths and breakbeats create a sense of transcendence that feels earned after the journey we've been on.

What makes 'Service Station At The End Of The Universe' so special is how it balances its narrative framework with genuine heart. Szmierek has created something rare: an album that works both as a collection of immediate, affecting songs and as a larger narrative about how we find meaning in the spaces between destinations. It's like overhearing a hundred different stories while waiting in line for a mediocre coffee, and realising we're all chapters in the same grand novel.