Lamp of the Universe
The Cosmic Union


4.0
excellent

Review

by username345 USER (52 Reviews)
August 24th, 2009 | 11 replies


Release Date: 2001 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Trippy psychedelic rock/folk with strong Indian raga influences and lots of sitar

The Cosmic Union is the debut album from Lamp of the Universe, a one-man project from New Zealander Craig Williamson (originally from the obscure stoner rock band Datura). If you hadn’t guessed by the album, band and track names and the cover art, the music here is very trippy and psychedelic. The band website describes it as “early 70's styled psychedelic eastern hippy acid folk music for the body, mind and spirit”. It’s hard to think of a better description of the music.

The songs contain a mixture of repetitive yet hypnotic acoustic folk music, occasional fuzzy electric guitars (with plenty of wah-wah added), dreamy synths and very strong Indian raga influences, complete with sitar, tabla and other Indian instruments. While you’ll find no insane Ravi Shankar style sitar solos here, the instrumentation is still very well done, especially as Craig Williamson played every instrument himself. Except for some guitar solos, the playing here is usually very relaxed, and the album creates a very relaxed trippy vibe.

This atmosphere is helped by the fantastic production. The music sounds incredibly spacey, with every instrument drenched completely in reverb. While Williamson is hardly the best singer ever, his voice is perfectly suited to the music. The singing is very light and mellow and sounds very dreamy and haunting with the reverb added. The lyrics are predictably hippie-esque, but aren’t really the focus here. A lot of the time it’s hard to hear exactly what’s being sung because of the reverb added to the vocals anyway.

While the music is often based on repetitive drones, it never gets at all boring. The longest song is less than 10 minutes, and new melodies are always added before it manages to go from ‘hypnotic’ to ‘dull’. There is also quite a lot of variety, with songs based on guitar-based space rock jams, raga and folk music. These different styles stop The Cosmic Union from getting samey but still manage to mix together perfectly, all fitting in with the atmosphere equally and never clashing. Williamson manages to blend these different styles effortlessly and it always sounds totally natural and never forced. While the album has an unmistakable late 60’s/early 70’s sound, it still manages to sound quite unique with this mix of styles.

There are also a few upbeat songs, such as ‘What Love Can Bring’, that drive the album forward but never really break the atmosphere. The Cosmic Union is gripping throughout despite lasting 54 minutes. One of the highlights of the album is perhaps ‘Give Yourself to Love’, which in a way sounds similar to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd with it’s psychedelic synth effects. The effects manage to capture the feel of experimental 60’s music without going over the top, and by staying quite restrained don’t ever sound at all cheesy, but add more variety to the album. Another highlight is ‘Freedom in your Mind’, which features distant echoing drums and some excellent Hendrix style guitar playing.

Overall, The Cosmic Union is a very impressive album and with it’s trippy atmosphere should be liked by any fan of psychedelic music, especially anyone who likes George Harrison’s explorations into Indian music. The biggest fault is that because it is so relaxed and dreamy and based more on drones than catchy melodies, you really need to be in the right mood to listen to it. When in that mood though, The Cosmic Union is definitely worth a listen.



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user ratings (13)
4
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
BallsToTheWall
August 24th 2009


51646 Comments


Interesting. Nice review

username345
August 24th 2009


594 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks. Here's a song if anyone's interested:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rueGTNSjglY

Prophet178
August 24th 2009


6397 Comments


Pretty cool, I don't know if I could listen to a full album of that stuff though, psych stuff tends to fuck with my head (I guess thats the goal though isn't it?).

foreverendeared
August 24th 2009


14741 Comments


going to go get stoned first, be back with the verdict.

joshuatree
Emeritus
August 24th 2009


3744 Comments


always have to get the shit you review

feav233
January 23rd 2010


1411 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

nice review, album is excellent

lucasweber
January 3rd 2013


1 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

where i download this?

YankeeDudel
January 3rd 2013


9342 Comments


sounds cool

tacos n stuff
February 21st 2014


3181 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

jesus christ this album oozes trippy...

Lord(e)Po)))ts
November 12th 2015


70256 Comments


shits good yeah

guitarded_chuck
November 16th 2015


18070 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

damn this is my shit



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