MYTHOS

Freely inspired by the already established Krautrock scene at the time and early PINK FLOYD, MYTHOS' debut possesses the type of naivete of spirit that seems frozen in time to those who remember it, those who were alive then but cannot remember it (among whom one might even count the group members), and those raised in the intervening years. It is certainly not that humanity was somehow more innocent then, but more that we are so much more jaded now. Even musically, the listeners' sense of following the artists on a journey for which the origin and destination are both wholly irrelevant is profound and, yes, endearing. Would that the journey itself at least possess a few signposts to help us determine if it's a journey worth taking at all!

All of the tracks here are listenable in the main, inclusive of the disjointed almost atonal vocal sections smattering the largely wordless backdrop, but some dutiful editing would improve the overall sense of progress. The flutes of the opening cut and the sedate movements of "Oriental Journey" contrast with the aggression of "Hero's Death" and "Encyclopedia Terra", which too vacillate from tranquility to pure tedium. It's neither as hypnotic as it ought to be nor as imposing as it would like to be, and I don't feel "saved" by the Christian pessimism of the last few minutes either, although I admit that the narrative and background are entirely sumptuous.

There is only one way to go with this - as the mythological heroes of Ancient Greece, to the middle ground, not so low as to collide with the earth shackled, and not so high as to scorch one's wings, because neither comes close to happening at any point during this trip.