Longshot - The Cosmic Bacteria's Experiences


Year of Release: 1997
Label: Target Records
Catalog Number: 29971
Format: CD
Total Time: 68:30:00

Finally, I found an album worthy of a review. Not only is this material great but it's awfully hard to find. To put this into concrete terms - unless you have connections with special clearance, it will be almost impossible to obtain. To be honest, I don't know of any conventional outlet that carries this variegated alienware.

My only hope is that newly rekindled interest forces progressive activists into a state of social outcry. Then one of the smarter labels will pick it up and have it reissued or the band itself will liberate emergency backup copies from the vault.

However it comes into the hands of wanton people, I personally don't care. My job is strictly to create awareness. Nevertheless, if I have to vouch for one album that's off the radar; this is my top choice. Make no bones about it, this album is a very precious specimen from space. If you like Transatlantic or Yes, check this magical moon rock out cause it categorically satisfies the wishes and needs of nine out of ten symphonic groupies.

If and when you hear it, you'll be pleasantly perplexed as to which era produced this merchandise. It has the charm of the pioneering forefathers with the production qualities of our latest wave. To give you a hint, its vintage is neither. It came about somewhere on the heels of the earliest neo. And as far as my ears can tell, it was way ahead of its time. It does to music what Newton did for physics and Einstein did for math. In other words, it breaks ground and subsequently goes on to split atoms.

Instrumentals such as "In A Lost Valley" will make you wonder if it gave Frogg Caf? its hop, whereas "Skyscrapers" has the sensibilities of Starcastle's stratospheric pop.

Furthermore, "The Alpha Centaury Visitor" is an advanced life form's wet dream while the initial barrage experienced in "The Strange Invader's Day" demoralizes all sentient recipients aligned with its telemetry.

On the flip side, "Star's End" is the mass culmination of the entire constellation, which means it has tons of gravitational pull.

Focusing primarily on favorites and reducing the celestial schema to smithereens, "In A Lost Valley" and "The Alpha Centaury Visitor" overall reign supreme. Back in the nebulous past, I heard samples of these meteoric cuts. For years, I tried to find the mother ship of these scouts. After probing cyberspace for what seemed like ages, at long last I made contact with the prime movers of their camp.

Some will say their material is too outlandish, bombastic, and pretentious. Personally, I feel as if this artist has potential that's nearly extraterrestrial. For those who have the same progressive fetishes as me, this will be right up their galaxy.

So write to those who legislate the distribution of musical goods; demand that this obligatory album is put into orbit. It's essentialness is less like welfare and more like air.

The day it arrives in your mailbox or on the shelves of record shops, you'll feel as if you just survived a progressive recession or a post-apocalyptic event that put music on the fringe of melodic fallout. Because it would be impossible to imagine a world where so many likeminded fans have gone so long without the orgasmic cultures of this cosmic bacterium.

Then again, the statistical chance that this article will alter the genre's space-time continuum is?well...a LONGSHOT.



[There is a new album in the pipeline, Armageddon, but when it will see the light of day, I'm not sure... Some other tidbits I (editor) learned while gathering additional info for Joshua's review -- band founder Michael Reese was once in the band Harlequin, and has been involved with other bands since as well releasing solo material. One of the other contributors to Longshot is artist/designer Thierry Guilleminot, who way, way back in this site's early days was nearly commissioned* to do some artwork for Progressiveworld.net (some of this art can be see here; in the end, it didn't work out, but Thierry graciously let us share some of his artwork creations). According to the bio at the Longshot website, "{Reese} read a sci-fi Novel from french Designer Thierry Guilleminot and want{ed} to make a musical adaptation of the story. As Thierry is also a great Genesis fan, this mark{ed} the beginning of the collaboration under the name of Longshot, {a} name taken because the precision of Starzen the Starcop from the Longshot police." - ed.]


Tracklisting:
Arrival (11:06) / In Lost Valley (9:02) / The Alpha Centaurii Visitor (10:06) / Skycrapers (10:02) / The Strange Invader's Day (11:45) / Behind The Last Gate (8:41) / Star's End (7:39)

Musicians:
Michael Reese - guitars, keyboards & vocals
Michel Altmayer - drums

Discography:
The Cosmic Bacteria's Experiences (1997)
Asylum (2002)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin FR

Added: December 7th 2008
Reviewer: Joshua "Prawg Dawg" Turner
Score:
Artist website: www.longshot.fr
Hits: 3396
Language: english

  

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