Litmus - "You Are Here"
(Space Music Ltd. 2004, 001)
Litmus - "You Are Here"
(Space Music Ltd. 2004, 001)
From Aural Innovations #29 (October 2004)
On the strength of the two Litmus cassette releases from a few years ago I knew this debut full length was going to be a monster. And I was right. Since 2001, UK based Litmus grew from a trio to a six-piece of guitar, bass, drums, vocals and oodles of keyboards, synths and audio generators. "Infinity Drive" opens the set on a high octane note with full blown in-yer-face metallic SPACE ROCK. We're head bangin' kids... and traveling at warp speed while dipping and dodging the imperial forces attack. Guitars are blazing, synths are blasting like a shower of falling stars and oh, what a luscious keyboard sound. A killer song! "Dreams Of Space" is next and doesn't ease the pace for second, pounding the senses with even more relentless space metal. Things calm briefly with the acoustic "You Are Here", only to blast off again with the spaced out prog-punky rockin' rollin' "Sonic Light". "(Theta Wave) Inductor" is a 10 minute space rocker that brings us deep into Hawkwind territory.
We then transition through a few shorter tracks: the short, spacey, keyboard dominated "There", which includes tasty gliss guitar, the power space metallic "I Can't Be Sane", and the slowly rumbling "Chime", that serves as a buildup to the 21 minute epic "Stone Oscillator (Static Ritual)". The music plows along for several minutes with a blend of spacey Stoner metal vibe, mellotron and keyboard laden heavy progressive rock. A great pounding jam track with ripping hard rock guitar leads, crashing metal guitars, trademark swirling space rock synths, dark symphonic mellotron, and mile high intensity. Wow, what a way to close a rip roaring set of space rock.
In summary, if you've been pining away for that new Hawkwind album that seems like it will never see the light of day... well... step on over this way and prepare to get blasted into the cosmos. This is Space Rock folks. THEE purest shit. HIGHEST recommendation!
For more information you can visit the Litmus web site at: http://www.litmusmusic.co.uk.
Visit the Space Music web site at: http://www.spacemusic.biz.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz