(2022) Mythic Sunship - Light/Flux    


Review:
Danish free rockers Mythic Sunship explore the space that links psychedelic sprawl and spaced-out jazz. Chaotic saxophone playing and dialed-in, Krautrock-informed rhythms have been the baseline of the band’s formula since they began in the early 2010s, and as they’ve grown, they’ve added elements of doomy riffing, proto-metal sludge, and collective improvisation to the mix. Light/Flux takes Mythic Sunship down paths that are new to them but always circles back to the sound they’ve perfected: that of an asteroid hurtling through the cosmos as it burns. Before that asteroid picks up speed, however, the band starts things off with the restrained “Aurora,” a moody tune based around a repetitive guitar figure that sounds borrowed from Neil Young’s earliest records with Crazy Horse. Rather than letting the song take on a traditional structure, the band builds around this foreboding loop, adding droning interplay between sax and guitar, dynamic drumming, and black hole synth pads. It’s one of Mythic Sunship’s earthiest tunes to date, and different enough from much of what they’ve done before to make it a daring choice for the opening track. Interestingly, the band keeps this steady simmer going into second track “Blood Moon,” another midtempo number that holds back rather than launching immediately into full power mode. The energy eventually ramps up just as the song ends, segueing into the familiar Neu!-esque pulse of “Equinox.” Moments of straightforward raging like “Equinox” and “Tempest” are similar to the style the band has been working with for most of their run, but the ten-minute shuffle of “Decomposition” is one of several tracks on Light/Flux that branches out from the Krautrock/doom metal/space jazz template that Mythic Sunship minted. The album’s roots rock undertones and auburn-colored jamming give it a more human feel than much of their earlier catalog, which stuck more to the outer reaches of alien galaxies. In some ways, Light/Flux can feel subdued, but even the would-be mellow jams eventually gain momentum, ratcheting up the intensity if not the volume for an experience just as out there as any of the band’s more in-your-face performances. — allmusic


   


Track List:
01 - Aurora
02 - Blood Moon
03 - Equinox
04 - Decomposition
05 - Tempest
06 - First Frost


Media Report:
Genre: psychedelic rock
Country: Denmark
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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