Review: Solar Music Library - Solar Music Library

Goddamit....will people stop releasing such fuckin' good stuff...I can't keep up!!! Back in October last year I was lucky enough to review Plant Tribe's debut release 'Last Noon' which also marked the debut of Space Chant Records...and a damn fine release is was too. Solar Music Library is the sophomore release of the label and sees things take a distinctly funky direction. Solar Music Library are a group of exotically monikered musicians from Thessalonika, Greece (Wonder Boy – drums, percussion, Soto Moto – bass, Obi – electric guitars, midi, keyboards, loops, percussion, and Kappa – electric/acoustic guitars, keyboards, midi, loops, samples, fuzzed bass) who have made an album that is cosmically trippy, gloriously funky and one the most enjoyable albums I've heard in a long while

'Cosmic Sadness' has the same psychedelic feel as some your favourite early Floyd trips....gentle and deliciously hypnotic...but they add a melancholic retro vibe, bordering on the hauntological. There is that same distinct atmosphere found in those creepy seventies children's TV programmes that adds a neat counterpoint to the delicate psychedelia. 'Space Cake at the Discothèque' is where things get funky, with a capital F. The throbbing bassline and wah-wah guitar are irresistibly groovy, but the retro keyboards prevent it from bursting into an all out funk fest. Add more than a sprinkle of psych guitar and some snatches of spoken word and you have a track that ticks boxes you didn't realise needed ticking...one of the most enjoyable tracks I've heard in a while. 'Motivo Satanico' is pure Giallo soundtrack fare...straight out the Frizzi/Morricone/Nicolai stable - smatterings of funky guitar, weird electronica, snatches of spoken word and theremin create an atmosphere of dread and menace, but manage to make it all so damn groovy....I love this track! 'The Hula-Hoop of the Jet Generation ', as well being a wonderful title, takes the soundtrack cue from 'Motivo...' and magnify it tenfold. The tempo is upped and the menace is doubled and it becomes the score from an Italian spy movie. The snatches of spoken word from American anti-drug public information films add a frisson of counterculture cool. 'Expectations by Heatwave' is another groove filled number with a tropical feel to it and some wonderful pseudosurf twang guitar....lounge music for heads! 'Masters Of Porn' is not as you would imagine...a wah-wah filled funky porn soundtrack...it does have some female orgasmic groans but, musically, is way more sophisticated than the score to flesh movies....it has more hauntological keyboards over guitars that seamlessly veer between the funky and the spacey. It reminded me a lot of some of the great Italian Occult Psychedelia of recent years..that same seemingly innocuous music that hides deeper and darker things. 'Rubber Climaxxx' sees the addition of some great fuzz guitar to the funkiness and adds a harder edge to the track...but it's still the wah-wah that gets the head nodding. 'Introspectrum' sees the band take a different tack again...initially we hear some acoustic guitar over an almost motorik beat and multilayered vocal harmonies but this soon evolves into a more overtly psychedelic based track. It takes in psych off all eras and all types..flashes of seventies heavy psych, some acid jamming, cosmic spacerock and more lilting pastoral psych...but it is all seamlessly put together and sounds perfectly coherent. 'Original Soundtrack' closes the album on a real high...a high octane space rock number with some underlying fuzz that gets right under the skin and a driving rhythm. It has the now familiar soundtrack feel in places but generally a more straightforward number, compared with what has preceded.

I've heard, and reviewed, many exceptional albums this year...some have been intellectually challenging, some have been skin blistering heavy and some have displayed musicianship of the very highest quality...but I can't remember listening to an album that is this much...well, I don't want to use the word fun - it may sound demeaning to the music...but it IS fun! It takes the Giallo soundtracks of the seventies (who, let us not forget, were composed by some musical heavyweights) and adds bucketfuls of funk and groove all wrapped in a psychedelic patterned paper. I defy anyone to listen to this album and not find their heads nodding and feet tapping....it is positively infectious in places. But, underneath all that groove there is a dark seam running throughout...some menacing vibes and foreboding atmospheres that make things interesting. This is another brilliant album...my Top Ten of the Year is rapidly becoming a Top Forty,,,so many fine releases..sigh! Much kudos to Space Chant Records for picking up on this. It is a lot different from the label's debut, and that is a good sign - the sign of a label that is willing to go with quality rather than a 'sound'. 'Solar Music Library' can be purchased via the Space Chant webstore here and comes black and purple vinyl (limited to 100 of each colour). The album can be streamed and the download purchased from the band's Bandcamp page here.