Sunday, June 3, 2007

COS-BABEL, LP, 1978, BELGIUM




Serious lump-in-throat jazzy prog beauty of the highest order here, people! Cos were a euphorically sublime Belgian group featuring a pre-Aksaq Maboul Marc Hollander that operated somewhere between the jazz rock magnetic poles of Canterbury and Zeuhl, taking the airy wistfulness of Hatfield And The North from the former and the ecstatic female vocal-driven rubric of early Zao from the latter, though by the time they'd arrived at this, their third album and (for me at least) definitive statement, a distinct disco component was becoming a factor, something that just pushes this from the gorgeous to the level of near-supernatural for me (after all...er...Canterbury disco-prog??), but has also managed to leave those not swayed by the (self-evident, methinks) beauty of a concept like disco-prog less than swept away. Well....phooey to them! This is one of the very pinnacles of Euro prog in my book and Pascal Son one of the greatest female progressive vocalists. Bliss awaits thee...

Get it Here

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget their main man, Daniel Schell.

I was lucky to see them live several times. Pure bliss, indeed.

Bass Player Alain Gauthier went to form a duo with Blaine Reininger after Cos. Saw their "Paris en Automne" on one of the other blogs.

Now Marc Moulin playing on this one! that guy's a whole other story; I suspect you're going to post his "Sam'Suffy" album one of these anyway, VDOandSound ;-)

Thanks for these Cosy tunes,
Lex

fuzztunnel said...

good god this is fantastic

Anonymous said...

very interesting sound. I really dig the disco-prog vibe of this album. "Greeneldo" really bring the album home and makes it a nice come down album to listen to.

It's cool that you are using MassMirror. Keep up the good work Vdoandsound.

Rico

Anonymous said...

Amazing band! I love them!

Armute

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine is a Cos fan. She asked for an album called "Swiss Chalet". Does anybody have this one??

Anonymous said...

In 1979, somebody dubbed me a cassette of "Viva Boma"; I listened so many times that I think I could still sing it in my sleep...

Anonymous said...

geez greeneldo totally blew me away, need to hear more cos...

the saucer people said...

"Canterbury Disco-Prog"....another sub-genre that I thank Mutant Sounds for turning me onto! This and the "Japanese psych porn groove" of Kiyoko Itoh has me spinning in my seat...keep splicing those mutant strains, its all about Musical Miscegenation!