KOSMOS

I got this CD a few years back as a in-store play demo when I worked for a multi-media store, and have been impressed with it as a great throwback to the space-rock/krautrock sound of the 70s. It is quite an impressive retro-rock album which also touches on some world music influences from time to time. This is a mostly instrumental band, and when they play full fledged rock, it's in the vein of a psychedelic Deep Purple, you know, the early years.

The album starts and ends with the focus tracks which show off their keyboard/organ work with that instrument getting the spotlight, but there is a lot of aggressive guitar work in there also. The first track "Psycho" sounds similar to early Ozric Tentacles, while the last track "Messe Noire" has that Deep Purple/Hawkwind sound and these are both full-band psychedelic rockers. The music inbetween these bookends is quite varied, sometimes experimental, oftentimes very unique, and definitely space rock and reminiscent of the krautrock bands of the 70s which is their main influence. These musicians from Quebec wanted to show that Krautrock is not dead and can be very pertinent to modern music.

Other highlights here include "Grand Grizou" which is reminiscent of Can with it's psychedelic leanings, "Indu Kush" which has a India-flavor to it with a sitar-flavored sound and vocals, there is a garage sounding song called "Much Too Old" with actual lyrics in English that still manages to continue in that spacey vibe, and another with French lyrics both spoken and sung called "Amerique Innavouable" which sound similar to something that "Art Zoyd" would do. There are also some avant-garde, modern tracks which experiment with noise in a space rock vibe in tracks like "Yawa", "Mothership", and the title track. There is some electronic experimentation also in the track "Septial" which sounds similar to Kraftwerk.

Even with all this variety, the album manages to remain true to it's krautrock roots with enough oddness and spacey jams to keep the prog lover interested throughout. I don't think there is anything new here, but it is quite an impressive feat to have so much variety and still remain consistent to the genre. This is an interesting collection of music that will keep you interested throughout, it has it's few weaknesses, but really does impress for a first go round for this band. 4 stars. If you hunger for krautrock/space rock, then you should check this out.