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Cosmosis - Fumbling For The Funky Frequency
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antic
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Posted : Aug 12, 2009 12:07:22
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Artist: Cosmosis
Title: Fumbling For the Funky Frequency
Cat. No: HOLO606
Label: Holophonic Records
Released: 10 July 2009
Tracklist:
1. Beguilling Illusions
2. Self Discovery
3. Space Traveller
4. Siren Song
5. Take Flight (with Avalon, Cosmosis Mix)
6. Samba Del Gringo
7. Empty Space (with Quantika, Cosmosis Mix)
8. Beyond The Five Senses
9. The Eternal Now
Review:
Unlike majority of the artists on the psychedelic trance scene today, Bill Halsey, the main driving force behind Cosmosis' last 6 albums, has broad musical education and years-worth stage music experience, playing guitar in various bands with styles ranging from jazz/soul to funk and pop. This background has had an enormous influence on his electronic music alter-ego, which can be clearly heard in many tracks throughout the years, be it in a form of well-hidden layers, displaying riffs or sequencing characteristic for other musical styles, or as a complete tunes, which were 'based' on one musical style or the other. This experience also allowed him to - successfully IMO, which in itself is very rare! - include guitars in some of his tracks, adding real-life sound and analogous touch to otherwise very digital music. Finally, this jazz/funk foundation makes his tracks stick from the crowd, as more funky and boot-shaking, with characteristic groovy rhythm section, rather than kicking or stomping. This has at least been the case until he found out, that CD sales are no longer enough to make a living from and the only way is through gig and DJ fees, which inevitably lead to the observation that most music played at festivals and clubs is full-on. As a result, to the dismay of loyal fans, last 2 albums: "Trancendance" from 2005 and in particular "Psychedelica Melodica" from 2007 headed more and more into that territory. Whether the result was good or not is subject to individual taste, as the reviews ranged from hype (mine included) to accusations of selling-out.
The new album largely follows the same recipe, however with a twist - instead of going more full-on and melodic, Cosmosis decided to go back a bit and concentrate on that funky side of his music, with a good measure of that good old goa melodies and improved complexity to the tracks. So, has this approach been any succesful?
In my humble opinion: yes. Although sonically and stylistically it is continuation of the sound we already heard on 2007's "Psychedelica Melodica" and in that sense it can be considered a slight let down (just remember how all 4 first albums were different from each other!), the changes introduced here are more than welcome. No longer will you hear out-of-place spoken samples or corny full-on breaks, the music got much more complex and detailed, there's enough variety inside and between the tracks to keep one interested during the whole length of the CD. More importantly though, the promise of back-to-the-roots approach has finally been fulfilled, because - for the first time since 2002's "Contact" - you can really hear those old-school melodies, layering and sequencing and couple of the tracks here could well be featured on some of the old albums, seminal "Synergy" included. Of course, it still sounds big and dancefloor friendly, just to guarantee CD sales and keep the gigs coming, but at the same time I couldn't help but notice there's a multitude of little details and effects in the music, which are largely irrelevant and probably unnoticeable on the dancefloor, but they are a proof that Cosmosis started to pay attention to psychedelic side of his music. In one of the reviews, commenting on the popularity of "Howling at The Moon", he said that currently he thinks that great, catchy tune can be made without all this complexity - as a result, we had previous album that somehow traded the mind-boggling intricacy of Cosmosis of the old days to over-emphasized, rave-y anthems. It worked like a treat in many of the tunes, but on the other hand due to exactly that they wore out pretty quickly, becoming predictable and known-to-the-bone. This is exact opposite of what psychedelic trance was always standing for: the sort of organic growth of the music, unpredictability and mysteriousness. In some of my old CDs I still, after all those years, discover sounds I never heard before; I still get lost in the aural images they create; I still get carried away by the melodic patchworks. Therefore I'm happy to report that Billy apparently realised that simple = good, but short-lived, and presented us with this album. I'd of course be far from truth claiming it is all perfect, because nothing is - some tracks (#1, 4 and 7) are average (as in: Cosmosis-average, mind you) at best, lacking a stand-out element or sounding unfinished / unfocused. Luckily, to balance this out there is at least couple of very solid tunes (#2, 5 and 6), which could be marked as a 'transition' from previous style to the current; and finally there are three awesome, incredible, terrific, blinding, overwhelming (etc. you probably got it by now) tracks #3, 8 and 9, that reaffirm Cosmosis' deserved place as one of the legendary veterans of the scene and - hopefully - indicate how the future albums could sound like. Highly recommended!
Oh, and the cover art is gorgeous, right up there with that of "Synergy" and "Contact"
9/10 |
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antic
Started Topics :
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Posted : Aug 12, 2009 12:08
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Bonus track-by-track breakdown:
#1. Beguiling Illusions is a rather standard affair from Cosmosis, exploiting some conspiracy theory samples, rubbery bassline and bits and pieces of pseudo arabic/hindu melody in the beginning. At 2:30 a galloping bass is introduced, accompanied with array of trademark Cosmosis sounds, which gradually shift into more melodic progression, underlined with bassline key changes. 4:00 mark sees another change, this time the bassline is replaced by an electric slap-bass guitar and some swirly, accidental acid sounds. After the break, the tune changes direction once again and re-introduces liquid acid sounds from the beginning, some elements of electric slap-bass guitar and that arabic/hindu melody, this time played by electric guitar. All in all it's a pretty decent tune, although it lacks a stand-out element or distinctive climax, which makes it boring pretty quickly. As a opener tune, 2007's "No Such Thing (Throb Factor Five Mix)" did the job much better IMO - it was more engaging musically and the funky bits were executed with more flair. 6/10
#2. Self Discovery takes no time to build up, as it right from the onset kicks in hard. At the beginning the track seems pretty slow, but every few seconds something new is introduced and at 1:30 it already reaches full speed, showcasing chunky, groovy electric bassline, smashing percussion and abundance of 'random' highly modulated sounds flying all over in- and out- of the mix. The twisty acid line leads into the break that makes way for the wonderful passage around 3:00, where it turns out that the bassline in fact is composed of two overlapping patches - this has a terrific listening experience on good soundsystem! The track then builds up to first real peak, a hands-up-in-the-air moment, where a fuzzy, 'hairy' bass string elevates and staples the rest of the tune together, going up and down in a proper trance-anthem manner. It does sound a bit corny at first (apparently Phantasm Rec.'s John Ford had some inspirational input in this track), but it's saved by the underlying, arpeggiated goa-ish melody in the back and sheer class it's made with. At this point, the track looses its focus a bit, going out for some random babbling and electro-ey breakage, but soon enough (5:55) we're back on track, heading for yet another peak before which you'll have to swallow a cliched full-on transition, but will be rewarded with deeply resonating, screamy a'la-303 acid line. Great tune - clubby, but with a genuine psychedelic trance touch and intricacy. 8/10
#3. Space Traveller gives immediate association of spacious, ethereal atmosphere. In this particular track however, the ambience is a bit darker, fitting more to the Star Wars space battle scene. Either way, similarly to previous tune this one builds gradually, adding multitude of swirling, grinding, crunchy sounds, treated with echoes and reverbs which indeed make it sound like we're in space, passed by huge interstellar vehicles. Ethereal synthwork in the background builds the atmosphere, underlined with occasional percussion accent and around 3:10 mark a gorgeous, fat acidbass is introduced: firstly it's pretty rough and clean, but then an electrical, rumbling bass line is added and cut-off filter gets abused, to form a crackling, screaming bridge towards 4:15, where the lead role is given to the dead simple, yet similarly deadly effective old-school riff, accentuated with returning 303 stabs. At 5:00 most of you'll get fooled (I still am, every time), because it sounds like the track's ending; but luckily, more goodies lurk ahead - the old-school melody, the acid line, the ethereal synthwork all play at once in a swirly crescendo, swimming in vacuum-of-space 'sounds' and atmospheres. Awesome tune, even more old-school than the last one with a properly psychedelic atmosphere! 9/10
#4. Siren Song starts up with a peaceful guitar melody that gives the musical backbone of the whole tune. Ethereal voices add to the mysterious atmosphere, but before the 1:00 mark it all disappears into frantic, full-on beat accompanied with Cosmosis sounds we all know and love. Further down the timeline, the guitar riffs are re-introduced, making way for the serpentine, spiralling melody starting at 2:30 that wiggles and bends beautifully, additionally tweaked to give that oscillating SH101-sound so much overused by Hallucinogen in his early days. At 3:00 the patch is replaced by a bigger, but more basic synth that - unfortunately - somehow feels like it can't catch up with the rest of the tune (must be the slow attack on the ADSR envelope). Few breaks later, the grand finale comes but it's just a repetition of stuff we heard earlier in the tune, with that eastern, serpentine melody shovelled right in your face. Might be I'm too picky or technical, but this tune, albeit having a great potential, lacks that indefinite something that makes music catchy and interesting. It just wanders around, without much purpose and direction and the main melody desperately needs some more complex layering, morphing, tweaking - musically it's OK; 'psychedelically' it's just not enough and is pale in comparison to 2007's "Dance of the Cosmic Serpent" or "Spanish Gypsy". 7/10 |
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antic
Started Topics :
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Posted : Aug 12, 2009 12:09
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#5. Take Flight sees Cosmosis teaming up with Leon Kane, known as Avalon but more importantly forming as half of Realitygrid duo, that released awesome Reality Check on Wildthings Rec. few years back. Being a great fan of both artists, I'm happy to report that their co-op is simply smashing: from the start it sounds harder, more hitting than the predecessors (muchly like "Mataphysical World" sounded on previous album) but at 1:25 you just can't hide your smile when that lazy, whizzing melodic passage is introduced. Few screamy acid lines later, there's this moment at 3:45, where the root-note of the track is broken with awesome "I think that's an amazing dream" sample which echoes in the background for 20 more seconds (I'm a sucker for such technical trickery!), that leads to awesome flanged acid sequence, that develops into full fledged old-school'ish mayhem around 4:30 - 5:00. To my disappointment, it never really is able to pick up the same energy again, let alone build upon it further and instead just goes in circles until the end at 7:42. Too bad, but still it earns 8/10 for the middle section which is simply outstanding.
#6. Samba del Gringo is an elsewhere unusual and mostly futile, but here quite expected and welcome other-musical-genre-influenced tune. As the scene in Latin countries, Brazil in particular, is booming at the moment, it couldn't be avoided to have a samba-flavoured track on here, especially since Bill's apparently having a soft spot for such music - does "The Bing Bang Boogie" off of "Synergy" album ring a bell? Anyway, at the beginning it doesn't really sound like samba, more like regular Cosmosis tune with all his trademark trickery and sounds. Soon enough though, around 1:00 mark, skilful ear will detect that steel-drum (marimba?) percussions and, just to make it more obvious for the least talented of us, the melody at 1:45 will leave no doubts. Trance samba you say? Must be pretty cheesy! No, it's not - the samba elements are introduced gradually, graced with a psychedelic trance sound manipulation and effects treatment, therefore it all seems so effortless, so natural. At 3:17 the digital sound of 21st century gives way for real piano, drums and that infectious up & down bassline - I can only imagine consternation on the dancefloor!!! Should I grab a girl standing next to me? Luckily at 3:55 things get back to normal, that is 4x4 beat, but the bassline is still doing it's up & down thing, which is equally unusual and amusing. The track shifts gears couple of times, in particular playing with bassline key-changes and samba elements that are thrown in- and out- of the mix. I can imagine that opinions on this track will be heavily divided, but personally I couldn't care less - this one is a creative, musical, fun & tongue-in-cheek tune, that'll have your friends giggle and dancing their asses off at the same time. 8/10
#7. Empty Space, despite suggesting covering the same grounds as #3 is no match to that tune. At first look there's nothing really wrong with it - it sounds a bit more aggressive and full-on'ish that the rest, just like #5 did, but then it's more blocky, sounds more 'sequenced' or 'programmed', as opposed to 'organically flowing' if you catch my drift? First part is pretty good, building up pretty nicely and slowly in spite of abundance of clichéd full-on squeaky sounds, until around 4:00 where after the break some daft 'melody' comes in that sounds completely out of the context and off-tune. I suspect, that this particular melody is the effect of unfortunate cooperation with Israeli Eric Mokotoff, supposedly known as Quantica (anyone heard of that guy?!). Luckily, soon enough Billy slaps the guy in the face with a wet herring shouting "Enough of that already!" and saves the day with a glorious, acid-drenched final run. Seriously, this track could have been a lot better without that 'israeli influence'. Luckily after 25-30 listens, I seem to have developed immunity for that middle part and do not notice it anymore. Still, only 6/10
#8. Beyond The Five Senses. With a track title like that, he was bound to come up with something special. Atmospheric voices form a background of the tune, soon accompanied by morphing hi-pass acid line and galloping rhythm section. Just before 1:00 mark an awesome, funk-ish acidic melody comes in, wiggling and stuttering around. At 1:50 a glassy, highly resonant acid patch is introduced, that leads to full 303 screaming section later on. The hi-pass acid line surfaces in the back again, supported by dreamy landscapes played by small, bell-type sounds a'la early Astral Projection. After the break around 4:30, a familiar string passage (to me it sounds like it's nicked from Cosmosis' "Contact" from 2002) drives the track and the sound picture gets denser every few seconds, with more and more layers of acid, melody, strings etc. unleashed upon the poor listener, tweaking and morphing in every possible way - there's really no climax here, but 'just' a massive wall of sound, where focus is moved from one layer to the other in a truly psychedelic, old-school way. This is a track that wouldn't sound out of place on "Synergy" (with the exception that it's up to today's production standards) and I can't really come up with better praise. 10/10
#9. The Eternal Now, as if the last track wasn't good enough, is even better. It is the slowest of the lot, travelling at only 138BPM, but that's the key word here - this track is 'travelling', instead of just going forward. It is a journey through different soundscapes and atmospheres, starting with pretty standard plucky sounds that form a base melodic platform, through more funky and glitchy section around 1:30 - 2:30, then turning into slightly acidic territories around 2:30 - 3:00 and finally introducing something that sounds like a crackling, distorted guitar at 3:30. It's all so lazy, so laid back and relaxed but still you can tell all the pieces are coming together to form something unexpected further down. "The past is a memory, the future's an expectation. Neither past nor future actually exist. There's simply eternal now!" some guy says, when a goa-ish background melody reveals its presence, building up along kick/snare roll. Surprisingly, the build-up doesn't end with a bang, but in an awkward, but beautifully executed funky section with a huge bass stabs. At 5:58 the track finally showcases what it was cooking all that time behind the scenes - a gorgeous melodic passage, supported by one of the best key-changes progressions I heard lately. Until the end the track goes even more wild, with some wacky acid sounds playing together with that melody and then it all gradually fades away, reintroducing some of the funky stuff from the beginning... This is REAL music and in my book the best track on the album!!! 10/10
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psyreviews
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 14, 2009 06:49
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Ellon
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Posted : Aug 15, 2009 07:05
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rich
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 02:11
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I think saikosounds has some of the tracks mixed up. 8. Beyond The Five Sense sounds like the samba track. Anybody confer?
Awesome, very proper review.
Full on may save itself with this album.
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mk47
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 07:15
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agree with everyone here , really nice full on this , good 1
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antic
Started Topics :
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Posted : Aug 28, 2009 17:44
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Quote:
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On 2009-08-27 02:11, rich wrote:
I think saikosounds has some of the tracks mixed up. 8. Beyond The Five Sense sounds like the samba track. Anybody confer? |
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Yeah, indeed: 6 is actually 7, 7 is 8 and 8 is 6. The rest is OK. |
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Edward X
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Posted : Aug 28, 2009 23:57
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On June 10, in Porto de Barcas, Portugal, I heard this sound (live) and I can tell you...
It was magic.
The Atlantic Ocean testified this moment.
Quote:
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On 2009-08-27 07:15, mk47 wrote:
agree with everyone here , really nice full on this , good 1
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Full On??
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Edward X
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Posted : Sep 16, 2009 19:51
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Listening well on some tracks there are a little taste of Full on ... But not more than that.
This is my opinion of course.
But in one way or another.
It is without doubt a great sound.
I did not care anything go to Stockholm this weekend. I love this sound to dance and go to places that exist in my imagination.
oh yeaaah |
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gutter
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Posted : Oct 6, 2009 14:09
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yes i agree for the full on term, its full of "full on" vibe and stabs here and there
i like Self Discovery no2 track more, has "that" driving feeling (except from that awful fullon woowoow stab in the track which is really hated- by me- he really could avoid putting that sound in there)
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Edward X
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Posted : Oct 6, 2009 22:12
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Quote:
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On 2009-10-06 14:09, gutter wrote:
"...i like Self Discovery no2 track more, has "that" driving feeling (except from that awful fullon woowoow stab in the track which is really hated- by me- he really could avoid putting that sound in there)"
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Sorry but now you made me laugh hehhe
No offense!!
I think this track (Self Discovery) is very well produced, although not consider the best of the Album.
I Woul like that more people listen and give opinion...
By the way ... Where happens exactly this "Stab"??? Only to try understand |
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gutter
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Posted : Oct 7, 2009 09:32
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laugh edward, no prob, i know my taste and what im talking about, its that retarded full on wobbly sound at 1.26 exactly you can listen to that shity "woopwoop".. i get nerves whenever i listen to that shit. ruins the vibe especially in that track, anyway
and the hole album is full on so live with it 
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Edward X
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Posted : Oct 7, 2009 15:22
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Firstly thanks for your explaination about the existence in the way that you feel about this "stab" in the track.
I respect your opinion, because as we all know, music is something very subjective and the feellings about it depends from person to person.
I still think the music is fine and some passages "drawn" to FullOn, does not detract in any way the quality.
Indeed (im my opinion of course) this is the perfect combination with other subgenres of Trance which is the richness of this album .
And most important of all for me ... Bill Halsey, still has not forgotten the sounds of old school where the complexity and subtlety of psychedelic music go hand in hand.
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Fometrius
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Apr 15, 2010 02:00
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Nice album  , my favorites are Siren song, Sef discovery,Beyond the five senses and The eternal now,although the other tracks are good to
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