HEROIC MATERIALS

Robin Armstrong's Cosmograf is back with a new concept album titled 'Heroic Materials', a really tight release that is necessarily very moody and with a refined taste for the acoustic as we hear how the unplugged guitars and piano arrangements form the backbone of this album. 'Heroic Materials' tells the story of an elderly ace fighter pilot who looks back upon his life and realizes how much the world has changed, with the album featuring both shorter pieces that serve as interludes or are there to add an episode of the story, and several longer (or rather, regular length) tracks that really depict the compositional force of Robin Armstrong. In this case I would not point to the longer tracks as the ones forming the musical identity of the record as they certainly make more sense in unison with all the shorter bits of music - the entire album works quite well as a concept record and the melancholic mood is carefully embedded into its fabric.

This album does not contain the usual rich layers of sounds, for which Cosmograf might be recognized as well as the heavy, thumping and almost doomy guitar riffs, nor does it offer the extensive use of synths and synth effects, which categorizes many previous releases of Armstrong. 'Heroic Materials' intends to be a rathe stripped down, raw and emotive collection of songs that has a rather striking emotional impact instead of a more technical one. This idea of the album's musical world is perhaps best depicted by the 13-minute title track, one of the central pieces on here - a rather steadily moving piece that is really mellow and with a strong sense of longing. The portrayal of the main character's thoughts, feelings and worldview is brilliant. We also have the lovely 'British Made' as well as 'If Things Don't Change', two of the strongest entries on the album. The entire LP works really well but is ostensibly different from the rest of the catalogue, which does not take away any of its value.

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