The Official Cosmosis Appreciation Topic!

[Goa Bill]

He had it coming! After years of awesome releases with some true goa gems in the beginning and full on dancefloor mutilators later on the man still has the spark!

Bill iz teh man and this topic is the warm up topic before he releases his new album.

The topic includes appreciation for the Mumbo Jumbo side project as well.

Kudos!!

[rino]

I second Pavel here. Cosmosis is the man. Interesting thing is, his music still succeeds to grab my attention, which is a rarity amongst old school producers who made it through the painful transition period. Naturally, nothing he's produced since "Synergy" blew me away as that masterful album did, but mr. Bagginz still has some tricks up the sleeve! Respect!

[SeaWasp]

I second Pavel here. Cosmosis is the man. Interesting thing is, his music still succeeds to grab my attention, which is a rarity amongst old school producers who made it through the painful transition period. Naturally, nothing he's produced since "Synergy" blew me away as that masterful album did, but mr. Bagginz still has some tricks up the sleeve! Respect!

Howling at the moon :posford:

[psyacoustics]

Nice topic ! Yeah Bilbo is a impressive example of a true dedicated psychedelic trance artist. Been there from the early days and now releasing his 6th ( !! ) album..He's on nonstop fire... No matter if you dont like his music,im sure you all paying some respect to the man with such a background...Now good news is that he is coming our way with a brand new Cosmosis live show featuring blasting new tunes from the new album plus brand new ones written since incorporating live electric guitar as part of the show...notice how many times the word 'new' is used

 

Click here to listen to teasers of the new album : http://arabesque.co.uk//index.php?option=c...Itemid=99999999

[pixiejanet]

Billy is bonkers!! I dont know where he finds his energy!! i love his tunage!!

[Goa Bill]

Billy is bonkers!! I dont know where he finds his energy!! i love his tunage!!

Must be the fresh Spanish air :drama:

[Guest antic]

Must be the fresh Spanish air :drama:

He moved to Switzerland now AFAIK

[Oopie]

oh billy!

 

*pushes his nipple against the glass*

[abasio]

You know it's already released

http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=6542

[technosomy]

album ordered

responses to come!!

[Psycosmo]

Cosmsis-Synergy on vinyl was my second psy album after Hallucinogen-Twisted. I had some very cracy times roaming around my city on drugs listening to Cosmosis. I think I blew a few gaskets while listening to Synergy...

I also used to use that album as teacher torture. I would set it up on my walkman and then hide my walkman in my backpack and "accidentally" bump it on and not notice. The teacher would go crazy trying to figure out if that strange sound was their mind playing tricks on them or what.

[abasio]

Cosmsis-Synergy on vinyl was my second psy album after Hallucinogen-Twisted. I had some very cracy times roaming around my city on drugs listening to Cosmosis. I think I blew a few gaskets while listening to Synergy...

I also used to use that album as teacher torture. I would set it up on my walkman and then hide my walkman in my backpack and "accidentally" bump it on and not notice. The teacher would go crazy trying to figure out if that strange sound was their mind playing tricks on them or what.

Amazing idea

[JiM Cheese]

I can exactly remember the detail but not the date (in about 1993 or 1994) asking Billy to sit down in a corner and playing him a track via headphoness (to get the true appreciation of the complex structure and immenseness of the sound) and from that moment on it seemed that his guitar just gathered dust in a corner and he dissapeared into his electonic studio for long periods of time. lol.

 

Never thought he would still be at it over 12 years after.

 

Jim Cheese.

[Trolsk]

Few psytrance artists have a twelve year long career. Most artists release a couple of tracks and one or two albums and then they are lost in the noise. Cosmosis is one of those artists that have managed to develop his sound with dignity and keep the quality high over the years. Even though he's far from his straight forward ecstatic melodic debut he has always had that psychedelic atmosphere we are all looking for. During his career he has created lots of good tracks and solid albums. Nine years after its release date Synergy still remains a masterpiece.

 

His 2005 album, Trancendance, was a big disappointment as it lacked the quality and integrity expected from Cosmosis, but judging by the samples from the new album he's back on track.

[Trolsk]

I can exactly remember the detail but not the date (in about 1993 or 1994) asking Billy to sit down in a corner and playing him a track via headphoness (to get the true appreciation of the complex structure and immenseness of the sound) and from that moment on it seemed that his guitar just gathered dust in a corner and he dissapeared into his electonic studio for long periods of time. lol.

 

Never thought he would still be at it over 12 years after.

Do you remember what it was you let him listen to?

[Guest antic]

Do you remember what it was you let him listen to?

From '98 interview:

 

3. How did you get involved in trance music?

My brother Mark turned me on to trance music. He kept playing me these mainly German 303 based trance records which I thought were wild. But what really turned my head around was when he sat me down and said you've got to hear this record, gave me his headphones and cranked up "LSD" by Hallucinogen. After I took the headphones off my life had altered. I looked up just in time to see my Fender Stratocaster flying out of the window, followed closely by a large collection of jazz records. I thought it was one of the most powerful and evocative pieces of music that I had ever heard full stop.

What else could it be?!

 

[Goannes]

Cosmology was the first psytrance-cd I ever listened knowing its was psy/goatrance.

I remember afterglowing on Afterglow and thinking to myself "how cool is this?"

We almost booked him for october this year, but then we decided to leave for mexico that month, so it's postponed (if the that's the right word).

 

Hail Cosmosis.

Thank you for the music.

[JiM Cheese]

Do you remember what it was you let him listen to?

 

Trolsk,

 

Antic is correct.

 

This track (LSD) at the time just about blew me away. After a diet of acidic 303 techno and "lightweight trance" this track just revealed (to me anyway) that there were truly higher levels possible with electronica. Thank you Simon.

 

Mark

[seraph]

Yeah ! Billy Bob Cosmosis is da man !

 

It seems that LSD track by Hallucinogen inspired many artists in the scene to start making trance music.

 

For me, all of his albums until Trancedance were top notch, Cosmology and Synergy being highlights.

 

I still like his style though, it is wacko and psychedelic enough for my taste.

[Sideffect...]

appreciated :posford:

[Oopie]

Trolsk,

 

Antic is correct.

 

This track (LSD) at the time just about blew me away. After a diet of acidic 303 techno and "lightweight trance" this track just revealed (to me anyway) that there were truly higher levels possible with electronica. Thank you Simon.

 

Mark

 

yeah apart for the "cable guy" post I must say Cosmosis is indeet a talented artist, one of the very few to push the envelope. I also enjoyed his "synergy" album immensely and a long time it was his favourite of mine. BUT later on as I've listened to "intergalactic" I've grown to enjoy this album the most. Sophisticated, funky, detailed... I'll always like that album.

 

Mister Mark, did you ever do any other trax than spores from space? that track is absotely insane and one of the very peaks of pietrance in my opinjon. thank you.

[technosomy]

yeah apart for the "cable guy" post I must say Cosmosis is indeet a talented artist, one of the very few to push the envelope. I also enjoyed his "synergy" album immensely and a long time it was his favourite of mine. BUT later on as I've listened to "intergalactic" I've grown to enjoy this album the most. Sophisticated, funky, detailed... I'll always like that album.

 

Mister Mark, did you ever do any other trax than spores from space? that track is absotely insane and one of the very peaks of pietrance in my opinjon. thank you.

agree one of my favorite cosmosis tracks also

appreciated

[Drew05]

hell yeah

i've been blasting Cosmosis pretty solidly all week

his music always has a uniqueness, a personality that goes beyond the traits of the genre

 

Inner Space does my head in properly

[JiM Cheese]

""Mister Mark, did you ever do any other trax than spores from space? that track is absotely insane and one of the very peaks of pietrance in my opinjon. thank you.

""

 

 

 

 

 

Blimey Oopie you have a good recollection of track credits. Forgive me if the next lot of text is a bit indulgent but I I'll explain why I cannot take any real credit from this track.

 

Let me say right away that that track is all Cosmosis. I was literally the studio tea bitch.

 

We agreed to do a track together which basically was me in the studio lots of hours over about 3 weeks with Billy generating and engineering everything.

 

First of all, iirc Bill gave me a few kik sounds and asked for opinions so we set the kik and bpm and ditto the bass and got a groove going which was Bill setting it all up (I don't even know how to turn on the lights in the studio).

 

Then he made lots of effects and sounds after I tried to explain verbally which sounds/effects I liked in driving psy then HE produced these sounds and I only said which ones sound "good". The metallic percussive sounds in the begining of the track were produced by almost by accident. (Trying to explain abstract noises is quite hard).

 

He had some vocal samples of someone sounding very earnest re lsd that he had taped which sounded like they were begging to be incorporated into a psy track ......and the idea of "spores from space" was arrived at after we discussed (took the piss more like) of the theory that the original spores from magic mushrooms had floated across space and arrived into earth - an alien drop (do you hear the splash at the beginning of the track? and the cheesy alien space-ship effect? well that's the alien space ship dropping off a phial of magic mushroom spores to spash down on earth).

 

The working title of the track was "Mushroom Magellan".

 

Then track was then assembled and mastered from the sum of parts chosen - rather like pick and mix - Then there were numerous mixes produced which were tweaked, more loops added, loops shortened, structure of track slightly arranged and then re-arranged, peaks moved, peaks extended etc etc.

 

To be honest it was like an opportunity to express some ideas and have someone draw it out for you - in other words anyone could do what little I did - the clever bit is interpreting the idea's and actually getting them engineered down - none of which I can do.

 

It was an opportunity that if given I'm sure most people would like to take it up. (Have free and unrestricted use of an engineer and musician to try express an idea or two).

 

One observation I have is that it is ironic that with electronica, a common criticism is that it makes composition/music "easier" well good psy tracks can take up to a month of solid work in a studio - in other words a huge amount of time and work - albeit this can be more accessible now in a bedroom.

 

Consider some more traditional musical "hits" over the years in conventional music took about 3 minutes to write and a couple of hours to put together in a studio.

 

Howling at the Moon was just about the most studio intensive track - that track took up so much time that Cosmosis basically admitted that he could not even hear or discriminate if it was worthy of release, or any good because he became completley saturated and immune to it's effects - changing and rechanging it for what seemed to be about 6 weeks. It became a beast sucking life and time from the originator. Is that not ironic? he almost hated that track because of what it took out of him (my interpretation).

 

The annoying thing (for me) is that the Howling version previous to the actual release was imho an even better track with an even greater peak (the melodies and effects just lifting stratosperically out of the main track and swirling around even more) but he released his last version. I wish I still had the previous version - it was a gem.

 

Sorry I've rambled on a bit. :drama:

 

Regards

 

Jim

[Guest antic]

Well, so it WAS actually co-written by you. Giving an inspiration and ideas is as much important as any other part of the process.

 

...that track took up so much time that Cosmosis basically admitted that he could not even hear or discriminate if it was worthy of release, or any good because he became completely saturated and immune to it's effects - changing and rehanging it for what seemed to be about 6 weeks. It became a beast sucking life and time from the originator. Is that not ironic? he almost hated that track because of what it took out of him (my interpretation).

Funny thing is, Bill apparently doesn't like his best (and it's not only IMO) tracks - Spores From Space & Howling At The Moon! He always says that good music can be much simpler and he must have been in an angry mood creating it. Too bad really, because those "complicated" tracks (+ Moonshine, Higher Access, Reality Check and few others) really show his talent as a musician and engineer.

 

I can't wait to finally receive my copy of the new album. Some tracks there sound as if he returned back to that more complicated approach, which would be just great.