Cosmic Seeds

Australian trio Brown Spirits signed to Soul Jazz Records on the strength of their first three home-recorded LPs, and they made their debut with the London label in 2023, issuing the sprawling, spacy Solitary Transmissions. Follow-up Cosmic Seeds is a refinement of the bands homegrown mixture of psychedelia, Krautrock, and deep funk. The groups formula seemingly hasnt changed, but everything just feels brighter, heavier, trippier, and more alive. Opener "Fault Lines" is the type of ten-minute jam that seems to fly by in half that time, a vibrant splash of keyboards and delay effects set to a heavy, amorphous groove, with a perfectly timed breakdown. "Mind Rocker" establishes a steady motorik rhythm, then kicks into overdrive halfway through, turning into a propulsive freakout. "Magenta Haze" is a bite-sized slice of big, funky drums and glimmering organ melodies. "Beat on Repeat" is even closer to a gargantuan, Jaki Liebezeit-style rhythm, with starry keyboards rising above the locked-in, steamrolling drums. "Out Out Out" finds the group working their magic at a chase-scene tempo. The last two songs let the band stretch out and slow down a bit, with "Winter Solstice" being a relaxed, highly pleasant comedown, sounding much closer to "Summer Madness" than the songs title suggests. Cosmic Seeds is a major step up for Brown Spirits, who seemed to have mastered the art of making colorful and energetic yet focused psychedelia. ~ Paul Simpson