Various Artists - Cosmic Picnic Vol. 1 (Two Tribes 7's Clash)

 

Title: Cosmic Picnic Vol. 1

Artist: Various

Label: Two Tribes 

Cat Number: No Idea

Genre: Cosmic Chug

1: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Y R We Here?

2: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero ft. Sacha Souter – Prayer To The Mother

3:  Justin Deighton, Leo Zero ft. Marcel – Those Were The Days

4:  Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Time (Pete Herbert Remix)

5:  Justin Deighton, Pete Herbert, Leo Zero – Sentiments Of Soho Theatre

6:  Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Humans

7:  Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – All Connected

8:  Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Roots Dub

One of the tracks that grabbed me more than the other on Sean Johnston’s recent ‘ALFOS EBS 35 Friday 3oth Sept’, was ‘Those Were The Days’ in which a slow, chugging beat is underpinned by the spoken word of someone who’s seen it all, but doesn’t come across as a smart arse. It’s one of four tracks, the others being ‘Time (Pete Herbert Remix)’, ‘Prayer To The Mother’ and ‘Sentiments Of Soho Theatre’ from this collection featured on said selection and is very much of it’s time, and of that time as well. Whatever that time may be is anyone’s guess, so I’ll be suitably vague. However, it’s fair to say that this collection fairly captures the chuggeist. In other words, it perpetuates a Balaeric/Cosmic lineage which is designed to make dancers lose their collective shit in amongst a sample heavy transcendental sonic undergrowth. I also think it’s true that music like this could only have sprung from these shores, no matter what the influences, as there’s something quintessentially British about the arrangements and the fact that listening to these tracks evokes dancing in a field as the sun is coming up. Of course the aforementioned ‘Those Were The days’, with its monologue that describes the experience of first-generation raving, sums this up in spades, and if I’ve heard that contrived arabic-inspired riff in ‘Time’ I’ve heard it a thousand times. It’s all good though, and the genius of tracks like these is using what, to many ears is a mundane sample or rhythm, but blending it skillfully enough to make it sound fresh and inevitable catchy. I think ‘Sentiments Of Soho Theatre’ was one of the highlights of Sean’s set at Covenanza for me, It may even be on one of my Instagram films. The piano makes it of course and, although it’s not an original riff at all, it has been absent from the collective consciousness for just long enough to explode into a new age without sounding hackneyed. This collection is on Bandcamp, every track is brilliant, it’s cheap as chips and it’s pretty much a blueprint for the next chug era. Buy it.