Sheffield Psych couple Cobalt Chapel do nothing, absolutely nothing, that hasn't been done many, many times before. They evoke that strange moment in the Mid Sixties when everybody, especially in the States, became completely obsessed with space travel, and black and white finally gave way to colour.
When everybody went to Psychedelic parties in ludicrous dayglo outfits and danced expressively to far out music. Where films and TV programmes did all they could to approximate the drug trip experience that youth were going through at this point in time. Where not many were actually doing this but a whole culture seemed to be staggering down a corridor towards a beckoning door of perception like refugees from Alice in Wonderland, and the bliss and eventual clarity that surely lay beyond it.
Orange Synthetic, Cobalt Chapel's third, stretches out a hand proferring the lysergic tablet. Not once but ten times. Every track is pretty much the same as the one before and the the one coming next. Not exactly a criticism, but perhaps they might have stretched themselves a little bit more.
This is In the Year 2525 meets White Rabbit meets Incense & Peppermints, meets Old Man Willow, (from Elephant's Graveyard and the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack), filtered through the sensibility of Broadcast and served up for a 2021 audience. It's not bad. It's also not great. It may provide a Soma or Moloko fix if you fancy an afternoon of being transported through time and space with no need to actually fasten your seatbelt.
There's one moment here where they depart from the established formula and strike off elswhere. On penultimate track E.B. where Mork meets Alice gives way to Spock, finding himself in the court of King Arthur and dances to a madrigal. It's the best thing here. As for Orange Synthetic as a whole. I'll give it seven.
No comments:
Post a Comment