It’s dangerous to start off a calendar year with a record like Future Machines because I’m not sure if it can possibly get better from here on out. Kösmonaut, their moniker teasing a kraut/prog sensibility, surge so far beyond the borders of that ridiculous genre it’s sick, approaching space from the opposite end of equally inventive bands like Kraus. Or maybe Mudboy commandeered the Star Trek Enterprise and set his phasers to ‘arpeggiate’ (I hope DeForrest reads this). Or maybe Popol Gluant got ahold of some new machines and built a new city, THIS city, on prog ‘n’ roll. Or maybe Patrick R. Pärk is the John Zorn of future-prog and is just getting started (though he’s already held auditions via Deep Distance and an imprint of his own). I DON’T KNOW. I DON’T KNOW. I even feel like there’s a pinch of Demdike Stare, minus the beats, tucked in here like a mini-baggy of heroin in Jonah Hill’s sweet ass. Spectrum Spools/Emeralds/etc. and OPN too. My head is spinning a bit, and the presentation of Future Machines, as with other These Are Not Records releases I’ve detailed in this section, is flawless enough to virtually guarantee its 250 copies, 100 on blood-red wax, will be jettisoned imminently. (Spoiler alert: There also appears to be a full-length from Landing on the TANR horizon; be ready.)
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