| DPRP - Vampyros Roussos (en) |
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Cosmic Trip Machine - Vampyros Roussos
Tracklist: Vampyres [Begin] (3:05), Psychedelic Twist (1:44), There’s No Sympathy For The Devil (3:03), Welcome To Roussos (1:42), [Not] Very High (3:44), Evil Preacher (2:04), White Lodge (1:48), Under The Control Of Evil (2:00), It Feels Good (4:07), Revelation Evil (1:52), Forest/Lost Island (4:35), Zorba Goes To Hell (3:00), Cerbere (3:17), Black Lodge (2:27), Flashback/Tropicalian Gnome (5:04), This Is Jazzy Isn’t It? (2:50), The Dirty Pursuit (3:04), Vampyres [End] (3:18) If this band’s name, Cosmic Trip Machine, conjures up psychedelic images for you, you’re on the right trip. The Belgian psychedelic duo is made up of the simply named Will Z. and Majnun, and their sophomore release Vampyros Roussos is a concept album heralded on the band’s website as (if you can’t figure it out by the CD’s title) “an imaginary 70’s psychedelic erotic horror soundtrack and rock opera” with inspiration coming from various horror and vampire related films. On the CD, Majnun plays the role of “The Count”, and Will Z. is “Jimmy”. The website for Record Heaven, who along with Clearspot is distributing the independent CD, indicates that the concept centers on Jimmy and his efforts to run away from “Fuzzy”, a police inspector, and his partner “Funky C”. The CD’s modest packaging and the band’s website and Myspace are not specific as to how the roles of The Count, Jimmy and the others are “acted”, whether it is through songwriting, vocals, and/or the generous use of sampling on the CD (see below). Prog purists may be saying “Just because it’s a concept album, doesn’t mean it’s prog”. And this CD is not prog in the traditional sense, but it is psychedlia, a genre reviewed by DPRP frequently and that which could be considered a sub-genre or offshoot of prog. Whether a concept album works in a psychedelic context is something else of debate altogether. The 18 track CD is full of catchy psychedelic hooks that are so infectious they tend to distract from the CD’s concept. The somewhat lethargic and unintelligible vocals are augmented in places by the aforementioned spoken word samples which lean to The Dark Side Of The Moon as a blueprint. Amidst all the hooky psych freaking you get boot-kicking go-go dance (Psychedelic Twist), stoner elements (Black Lodge), and even a bit of Chicago blues shuffle (Vampyres [End]). The instrumentation is varied, with appearances by eastern percussion, squiggly electronics, backwards tape effects, some Theremin style elements, and last but not least, the obligatory sitar and organ. All are played very well, but the band’s site and Myspace do not credit instruments to the individual musicians. The packaging of the promo CD I got was pretty minimal, simply a white sheet of paper with black text. Festival appearances and the selling out of a seventy-unit run of Vampyros Roussos in cassette form lead me to believe that there are fans of the band who apparently “get” what they are all about. I can’t say that I’m one of them, but I would find myself returning to this CD from time to time in the future, and, as I would advise the band to do with future releases, forgetting about the concept. Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10 JIM CORCORAN Jim Corcoran, Cosmic Trip Machine - Vampyros Roussos, Dutch Progressive Rock Page  |
