Returning to the astral plain of pure musical escapism, Domo hail from the golden city of Alicante. Their name doubles as a Japanese honorific (“domo arigato”, etc), which pleases me, and their debut ‘Domonautas Vol # 1’ LP (on the German Clostridium label) finds them infusing their consummate stoner/space-rock with a heroic dose of pre-‘Dark Side..’ Floyd / early King Crimson styled compositional ambience, which pleases me yet further, fooling me for forty-odd minutes into imagining all is right with the world.

For, as long as the dusty string/brass/choral textures drift past like a twilight frolic through Bosch’s Garden on the opening ‘Oxymoron’, languid bass walkin’ the dog until those pyramid-robbin’, Eastern-tinged riffs crash down at precisely the right moment for an extended interplanetary grind on second cut ‘Astródomo’ … we have no cause to worry.

Though they may initially seem to be lurking somewhere on the same general vacinity as Denmark’s Causa Sui and the El Paraiso label, aesthetically-speaking, Domo achieve a mellower, more approachable sound here, digging deeper into the feel (rather than merely form) of their vintage influences, leaving their music enriched by fading echoes of bucolic, analogue-era psych alongside their sinister metal void-gazin’ and, crucially, exhibiting a greater veneration for the supremacy of The Almighty Groove.

If there’s a lot of prog in the mix, well, rest assured, this is prog in the best possible sense of the world, valuing a sense of collective expression over individual ego-trips from the players (though there are, naturally, plenty of ripping solos to enjoy too), making – to my ears at least – for a supremely generous quartet of semi-side long jams, epic as you like whilst keeping a careful check on the bombast, making sure heads keep nodding all the way to the silver gates of infinity. (The cyclical riff on side 2’s ‘Rituel del Sol’ is particularly immense in this respect.)

Basically, this record sounds like it’s cover art (by Maarten Donders) looks, to the extent that I’d wager your instinctive reaction to the cover will very likely mirror your response to the music within. If you have no space for this in your life, I won’t judge you, but personally, I’m down with it.

(Up close you can even see the brush strokes and the texture of the canvas reproduced on the LP cover, it looks smashing. I wish it was made of that lovely textured card material you sometimes get on old ‘70s albums, but shit, can’t have everything right? Might as well demand to see it adorning the walls of some candle-lit beach house, waves crashing upon the shore outside. It’s a lovely package anyway, and I’m happy merely to own this LP; well worth the eye-watering sum you’ll likely pay to some delivery firm to place one in yr hands.)

Labels: album reviews, Domo