COSMOSIS

The second Kanoi's album is surely a big improvement respect to the debut. The drummer is gone and Benjamin Kantschieder is a one-man band. This means more proper "songs" and less jamming. Not that the acid improvisations of Blisterfinger were bad, but this album is really better in terms of compositions which in any case are developed around the guitar, and even when he jams as in "Storm", it's not improvisation only. The sounds are close to the Pink Floyd of the Meddle period, I mean the rock-blues sounds of Gilmour's Fender. There are lyrics and vocals, too. Sometimes so high pitched to sound quite feminine, very well fitting with the music.

One special mention is deserved by the long suite which closes the album and gives it the title. The keyboard layout and the clean guitar reminded me to the intro of "Coming Back To Life" from The Division Bell but the comparison stops here as it goes on in this way, mainly on a single major chord. It's that the guitar sounds similar to Gilmour's, but this is the kind of music that on PA is called "Progressive Electronic". The chord remains the same and the tone and volume of the keyboard layer changes only in the last three of this 23 minutes track.

In brief, the first seven tracks are a sort of "classic krautrock" if anything of this kind exist, which can appeal fans of the likes of ASH RA and AMON DUUL II while the long suite is more meditative, more suitable for who likes early Tangerine Dream, Alio Die and the progressive electronic in general.

As all the Kanoi's albums up to now, also this is a name your price download which I strongly suggest.

In terms of stars, it still misses something to have the fourth but, as I have already written, it's a very big improvement. Instead of "good but non-essential" I'd say Non-essential but good". It sounds better in this way. Three stars but very close to the fourth.