AURORA

Firmly in the HAWKWIND school of Space Rock and utilising a mellotron to get that retro sound. They've also got a certain crudeness and Punk ethos that put them in the modern Post-Grunge age of today. Even if they got their own sound it's only a variation of said Space Rock genre and that maybe doesn't qualify for a Prog classification. Maybe they're more Retro.

A strong enough album to earn three stars anyway. It has somehow managed to be a favourite of mine when driving my car through the evening or night so I reward it even four stars. It also sports a nice sleeve cover.

Best tracks would be "Kings Of Infinte Space" and "Red Skies".

This album "Aurora" was released in 2009 as the third album of another Space Rock legend LITMUS. In this stuff they create meteor stream spacey soundscape obviously leaning upon the Space Rock vanguard HAWKWIND but claiming more intimacy or catchiness on the other hand. Their musical transmission strategy can be thought as to produce heavy and tight rhythm junction along pop melody lines sprucely seasoned with synthesizer space pepper powder.

They lay brilliant extremity as above upon the audience via the first track "Beyond The Sun" with their intelligible explanation for space rock. Suppose they may have a strong intention to make us (both of the band and the audience) enjoy sincerely, not to throw us into addiction. Even some rhythmic irregularities glimpsed in the following one "In The Burning Light" sound not like they show progression of space rock but simply like they like to grab the audience's heart out. No difficulty around their rock music needed.

Anyway, there is such a relaxation of moonshine like "Eos", with slow attacks of para-melodic sound conjugations. Martin's heavy bass traction is awesome indeed. Oli's keyboard (or mellotron?) does excellently lyrical works in "Stars" ... featuring mysterious multi- dimensional sound chasers (and we cannot feel irritated over these unreal phrases). Their rigid sound attitude and assertion for notifying us of their melodious rock ritual cannot be altered even in the most theatrical creation "Ma:55oN", delightful rhythm convolution constructed with simple heavy beat avalanche.

Can mention they play not originality or innovation but contemporary space rock inspired by HAWKWIND with their interpretation for intimate rock music. Easy to listen, it's not bad actually.

3.5 stars. LITMUS released four studio albums between 2004 and 2012 and I have the first three. The debut "You Are Here" is the best in my opinion with Matt Thompson of GUAPO fame adding audio generator and his brother Andy from Planetmellotron adding... well mellotron.

The biggest complaint is how much they sound like HAWKWIND, especially the tunes that "rock". The followup "Planetfall" was a disappointment, with Matt leaving and Andy's mellotron being buried in the mix. "Aurora" their third from 2009 is an improvement over "Planetfall" but just falls short of that fourth star. And again the reason for that is the HAWKWIND worship.

Over half of this 65 1/2 minute album sounds like energetic HAWKWIND but there's also so much good stuff on here. Andy left after "Planetfall" but even he says "Aurora" is a better album than "Planetfall". Highlights are the over 5 minute "Eos" where we get a spacey soundscape that builds and swells and how about the mellotron. "Kings Of Infinite Space" at 8 1/2 minutes is my favourite. A slow build as vocals join in. Just a nice heavy sound eventually.

"Ma:55on Rift" is my final top three and this is trippy and spacey and t doesn't start to move until after 3 minutes as the drums arrive, bass too. Love the depth here before 5 minutes. Some ripping guitar 7 minutes in and mellotron late. The one HAWKWIND-like tune I really like is "Stars" and it's the shortest at 4 minutes. An intense track.

I'm pretty happy to have their debut but this is the next best thing.