REVIEWS

Christus and the Cosmonaughts
From Atop This Hill

Beta-lactam Ring Records

Posted: Wednesday, September 05, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

If you're an electronic musician, your first exposure to Scot Solida was probably through his articles in magazines like Grooves or Computer Music, or from using loops and patches from his sound design company, The Electronic Garden. As noted as he is for his technical knowledge, you'd expect his band, Chritus and the Cosmonaughts, to sound similarly technical and precise. From Atop This Hill though, is about as far from cold, calculating precision as you can get; sounding a bit like Pink Floyd and a lot like Pink Dots, this album is a freaky psychedelic space ride. No wonder Solida's got a lot of gear know-how; he probably needs it to find his way back to reality after exploring the uncharted territories of "No Chance to Dream" and "Nothing to Say." The best example of Solida's mad genius is "Nod If You Were the Last Man Alive," which uses a simple if eerie verse of trippy folk as the launching pad for explorations into everything from blipping ambient to screeching guitar improvisation (performed by Solida's enigmatically-named band-mate, Har). There's even a bit of industrial in there, with clanking metal percussion and blistering feedback, though it eventually gives way to a more melodic section of progressive guitar solos. Title track "From Atop This Hill" is very much in the vein of The Legendary Pink Dots, with fuzzy analog arpeggios building slowly into a hallucinogenic mountain of sound, while "Beyond Belief" is a more spaced out take on David Bowie's "Saviour Machine," a hymn to agnosticism delivered by a messiah blissed out on a morphine drip. "Modulating Between Faith and Knowledge" is far more abstract fare, a minimalist conversation between windy drones and fuzzy tone loops. It takes real expertise to make music this crazy, but you don't have to be familiar with Solida's technical background to enjoy Christus and the Cosmonaughts. In fact, even if do you try to figure out how he does it, the music will short-circuit your rational mind before you get the chance.