YOU ARE HERE

This is the official debut of British space rockers LITMUS, and I feel it's their best one too. Very much in the vein of HAWKWIND almost to a fault. And for whatever reason I'm not usually into bands that sound like HAWKWIND. I just don't think you can improve on their style but LITMUS do a very good job at creating really good songs and they all are excellent musicians and the vocalist can really sing.

There's two brothers on here namely Andy and Matt Thompson who many will know. Matt from GUAPO, ZOLTAN and other bands while Andy is the man behind the Planetmellotron web-site. And yes Andy plays mellotron on here along with hammond, mini-moog, moog taurus and more. Matt is responsible for the gong which sounds amazing to start "(Theta Wave) Inductor" as well as using an audio generator. The guitarist and multi-instrumentalist on here also use that device. A six piece with a drummer and bass player who adds other instruments as well.

Released in 2004 this one rocks pretty hard but my favourite song is that ballad-like title track in the HAWKWIND style of course. Acoustic guitar, vocals and mellotron stand out and hey birds chirping to end it, so Prog. Some experimental stuff and soundscape music on this album as well but man these guys let it explode in a big way with the guitar ripping it up, upfront bass and really good drum work. Then of course all the synths, audio generators, mellotron and the like adding a ton of atmosphere.

So impressed with this one and maybe it's in part because it took me so long to track down a copy as it has only had the original pressing with no re-issues. My appreciation for Andy just went higher after actually hearing him as a musician. I'm also very thankful for all the great information on mellotron albums I've had the pleasure to read on his site over the years. A very solid 4 stars.