Listening to Lino Cosmos is like being locked in a creative frenzy brought with the most sublime resourcefulness and intricate control. The new album from UK rockers Lifecycle is a delicious weave of styles and imagination which defies description yet nestles perfectly in the appetite of any melodic and alternative rock fan. Strolling with bold exploration through rhythmic jungles, melodic dramas, and electronic emprises, Lino Cosmos is an insatiably adventurous flight driven by sultry tribal tenacity across diverse soundscapes beneath hazily psychedelic skies.
The London band consists of guitarist/vocalist Geoffrey Dent, bassist Letitia Austin, and drummer Nick Holder. The history of Dent and Austin goes back a fair way having met in the nineties. It was another fifteen years though before the pair met again and merged their skills in Lifecycle with Holder, having come across Dent in 2009, linking up a year later. With the album Luxury Condominium under its belt and a renowned live presence which is as much a trigger to mass bodily involvement in dance fans as rock, the trio release their most gripping and incendiary incitement yet. Lino Cosmos is a voracious flirtation and agitated seduction which just cannot be ignored, a tapestry of flavours and genres which converge into one inescapable psyche swamping sensation.
As soon as the opening rhythmic shuffle of Dissolve tantalises ears, band and album has attention and imagination in their palms. It is a teasing invitation which swiftly grows in stature as beats gain weight and Austin’s bass begins its primal flirtation. The instinctive dance only increases in temptation as Dents sandy tones courted by melodic intrigue add their colour to the creative revelry. There is a swagger and energy to the song which recalls the core of Happy Mondays whilst rhythmically the band brings thoughts of eighties band King Trigger to the fore. Never exploding into an outright rampage but wonderfully nagging away with anthemic potency across a net of magnetic beats wrapped in a warm electro ambience the track is insatiably hypnotic and warmly fascinating.
The powerful start is swiftly matched by the gorgeous beauty and infectiousness of Not Enough. Entering on another eighties seeded melodic and rhythmic dance, thoughts of Electric Guitars and Hey! Elastica swiftly in place, the song is soon breaking out its sinews with heavy bass courting and funk bred enterprise. Again it is all bound in an electro festivity and vocal excellence with radiant harmonies, the mix a full captivation to feet and imagination. Virulent in its energy, exhausting in its voracious persuasion, and incessant in its almost exotic charm, the song is scintillating and easily one of the best incitements heard this year.
The rhythmic and melodic seducing shows no signs of relinquishing their addictive holds as both Patterns and Burst Your Bubble swarm over ears and emotions. The first has a slightly more restrained vivacity compared to the previous songs but with bewitching and increasingly feisty agitation to the rhythms and a Police like mellowness to vocals and melodies, it moves and flirts like a Caribbean temptress as radiance spills from every caress of keys and stroke of guitar. Its successor prowls with a shadowed smile to its presence and intriguing colour, the song as others carrying a melodic grin within a web of alluring rhythms, yet there is a bordering on sinister lilt to the heart and atmosphere of the emerging exploration too. At times the track has a whisper of Pop Will Eat Itself to it and in others an enticing of Vampire Weekend meets Silhouettes, and though it is more a smouldering tempting than the instantly enslaving stomps of its predecessors, the track evolves into an equally compelling treat.
Every song upon Line Cosmos has its own individual drama, the meaty scenery and scorched rock walls of The Big Picture next a riveting example. It spreads cunningly over the imagination, sparking new adventures with every climb of its broody and continually expanding narrative. Listening to the album is like being bound and held in the throes of sonic alchemy, the next up Rush Into This immersing senses and thoughts in a haunting melodic experiment as rock, pop, dub, and electronic majesty entwine in an extraordinary cinematic descent into dark realms and emotional shadows.
Change Tact also explores a haunted realm, melodies emotionally reflective whilst shards of guitars and breezes of keys paint the song’s canvas with crystaline and celestial hues respectively. The track is engrossing though it lacks something to spark the passions as the previous songs, similarly final song Greed. Nevertheless both leave ears satisfied and appetite full, the closing track springing a fiery stroll of rock pop with electronic spotting.
Lino Cosmos is an encounter which lingers longer than most and incites complete involvement of body and soul in its company. Lifecycle are sonic alchemists, centuries ago they would be burnt as witches but today we can only hungrily indulge and devour their creative majesty.
Lino Cosmos is available now digitally and on CD via Supersymmetry and at http://thelifecycle.bandcamp.com/album/lino-cosmos
RingMaster 28/10/2014
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