Saturday, March 27, 2010

COS-PASIONES, LP, 1982, BELGIUM





More total irresistibility from this Belgian art rock institution who started life in the spirit of Canterbury jazz rock and the airier side of Zeuhl, adopted a disco-prog stance circa Babel that was insanely delicious and then zig -zagged off for a pop prog rebirth with a largely new line-up (save founder/leader Daniel Schell and drummer Philippe Allaert) that was fronted by another powerhouse vocalist in the person of one Ilona Chale. Filling the shoes of Pascale Son and her goosebump-inducing airy Northette-isms (one of the defining characteristics of Cos' earlier period) is no mean feat, but Chale, who looks like Zooey Deschanel and sounds like Dagmar Krause, was a long time operator within the Belgian avant prog landscape, having appeared in a guest capacity on albums by Aksak Maboul, Univers Zero, Nuit Caline A La Villa Mon Reve and Julverne as well as appearing on the V/A-Noises LP I posted recently, and she commandingly fils Son's shoes on this and the following Cos EP (the previously posted Hotel Atlantic), her presence here (along with a line-up shift abandoning keys and with Schell shifting from guitar to Chapman Stick) having helped usher in a tone of eccentric new wave-y pop polish with overtones of The Honeymoon Killers, most curious as Marc Hollander of HK was the original keyboardist for Cos, but was out of the band by this point. Pasiones represented the first step toward their reconfiguration as the super suave Mathematiques Modernes style electropop band that can be heard on Hotel Atlantic, but this one's a thing of beauty too, successfully riding the mid-ground between subtle prog sophistication and seductive new wave pop charm.

Note: links have been removed as I somehow missed that this album (along with Viva Boma and Postaolien Train Robbery) is available via Mindawn Here

17 comments:

art of losing said...

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see you.
LD.

fuzztunnel said...

Cos is one of my favorite discoveries from this blog. Can't wait to hear this one; thanks!

Anonymous said...

Oh my god. I had completely forgotten about that one though it had been my favourite record for a while, I played it a dozen times each day. If I remember right I even saw Cos in Munich in 1982 or 1983. Thank you a million times for bringing this back to me! Your description is great, I still adore this record.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh , another old one originally from my collection.
Perhaps I shouldn`t have sold it to you ....?
I have grown much more fond of this one , but it`s no Honeymoon Killers.

& nothing beats early COS with Pascale Son for me.

V. Dorje

The Bomber said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gih said...

thanks for sharing. I want it to download so that can play offline.

kratom said...

I just wanted to say how effin amazing your work is. This is such a great blog to discover or rediscover some brilliant music. Thank!!

Gerard said...

I don't know how else to contact you guys...are you familiar with a band/man named Stano? released a record in early to mid 80's, i believe he was Polish. He did a song called "Egypt was My Dream."
I have been looking and searching and can find it nowhere...and it seems like it would fit on this blog
thanks
oh, right , i love this site...you guys have turned me on to some excellent sounds!

Gerard said...

i just posted a question about stano...can you send any info to my email please thanks

Some Dude said...

Oh cummon... the Musea CD reissue may be OOP, but it can still be downloaded officially from Mindawn, along with Postaeolian Train Robbery, and it seems that the Viva Boma is back in print. Daniel has a long-standing arrangement for them to do the whole catalog - it's not like he's making a mint with his operas.

vdoandsound said...

Some Dude-I somehow missed seeing the Mindawn thing, but your point is taken. Since this and Viva Boma are in print from them, both this and Viva Boma have has the links removed.

Oozlum said...

Bravo & thank you! Let there be 'more' disco-prog on mutant sounds, please.

ROCKLAND said...

Fantastic blog!!
Thanks to share so incredible music. I will visit you frequently.

Keep the rock alive!

cheers

ZINDO said...

i was thinking u never post nothing abou FOREVER EISNTEIN, artificial horizon or something like that

rose said...

so incredible blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanksalot for Cos jewel. All Cos albums are wonderful.

Calisan said...

Could you re-post just the images from artwork with real size as usual in your links
Thanks! and great job with this rare!