Black Science

Cosmogenic & Beyond

Written by: PP on 17/11/2010 05:14:43

If you've ever seen Terry Gilliam's cult classic "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" and marveled at the way he depicts Johnny Depp's hallucogenic drug intake as an insanity of colour, shape and nonsensical fear, this is exactly the atmosphere presented by Black Science on their new album "Cosmogenic & Beyond". We're chest-deep in classic 70s psychedelia with a modern American twist to it, as if Led Zeppelin was jamming with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club after consuming some LSD and mescaline in quick succession. As you might imagine, this brings about a musical experience - and I want to stress the word experience - not quite like any other, and one certainly belonging in the far end of the "beyond" part of the album's title.

The colourful artwork depicts stereotypical psychedelia so this could be one of the cases where you can judge a book by it's cover, but I'm inclined to believe this album is one of the finest albums I've heard in the genre since the classics. The atmospheres are spacey, but not epic necessarily, and rely on extremely busy guitar passages and interaction between the drug-induced vocals and the effect-laden instrumentals to bring about some fairly odd combinations of unconventional sounds and structures that you rarely see these days. It follows the format set by the genre's forefathers, but it does it unapologetically, sounding convincing and consequently very good, especially if you're listening to it during one of those late night sessions when you're heavily intoxicated and just want to kick your legs up on the table and chill the fuck out with your eyes closed. Chances are, you'll be seeing something colours and shapes quite similar as the artwork of this disc in your mind as you listen to it.

If that description hasn't convinced you yet, you could always take a peak at a track like "Another Space Anomaly", which is one of the couple of examples on the disc where the band shift into technically jaw-dropping, 70s-oriented telepathic jam-sessions that aren't too far away from "Frances The Mute"-era The Mars Volta. The guitarist doesn't leave much room for questions regarding whether Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has been an inspiration to him. Now, the best way to enjoy "Cosmogenic & Beyond" is almost certainly in some sort of drug-induced state, but that doesn't prevent fans of guitar and atmosphere-oriented music to appreciate what's going on here. What impresses me the most, however, is that "Cosmogenic & Beyond" could've been the perfect soundtrack to Fear & Loathing had it been released 12 years ago.

7

Download: Another Space Anomaly
For the fans of: Led Zeppelin, The Mars Volta, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
Listen: Myspace

Release date 20.04.2010
Dark Matter Industries

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.