Album Review: Primal Scream – ‘Chaosmosis’


Chaosmosis




The term ‘Chaosmosis’ originates from French philosopher and psychotherapist Felix Guattari.

In this particular theory, Guattari states art is an aesthetical product that comes from new subjective perspectives, and that subjectivity is always collective, or pre-individual. In other words, the collective group forms the basis of subjectivity through gradations of experiences, not predetermined stages of development.

Few bands survive in the world around them, but now thirty-four years into their career, Primal Scream have adapted and remained relevant with each incarnation. After a decade of consistent releases, 2013’s sprawling and ambitious ‘More Light’ proved Bobby Gillespie and co. were still creatively exuberant.

On their eleventh studio album, Primal Scream sustain this renewed artistic momentum by crafting the most concise record of their career.

Similar to 2008’s contentious ‘Beautiful Future’, this effort thrives off the group’s collaborative ability. Yet whereas that album had a violent Pollock disjointedness of guests and influences on it, this record has a singular focus and demographic of guests; rising female stars Haim, Sky Ferreria and Rachel Zeffra are featured on a handful tracks, each adroitly asserting their presence in unique and stunning fashion.

Trippin On Your Love’ opens with a shuffling keyboard piano hook that glows and embraces like an early 90’s acid-house rave. The immediacy of the hook gently stretches and loosens the muscles to dance as a breezy, anthemic melody carries over a kaleidoscopic Byrds-esque guitar riff. A spirited performance from the Haim sisters makes this seemingly archetypal Primal Scream song a quintessential one.

Even more outstanding is the campy, new-wave glimmer of ‘Where the Light Gets It’, Gillespie and Ferreira’s lovelorn verses swerving in and out with palpable chemistry as the song’s inner-peace chorus punches with a sugary pop. Effortlessly combining influences of dance, pop, and rock n’ roll, this dancefloor anthem reaches a crescendo with a wobbly guitar solo. Zeffra’s featured performance on folk ditty ‘Private Wars’, meanwhile, offers a welcome but unexpected breath of fresh air as warm strings elegantly close the album’s first side.

Always chameleon-like in their musical prowess, ‘Chaosmosis’ too is a miscellaneous record, although they have never executed their heterogeneity so compactly than here. Opening with a clunky punching groove, ‘(Feeling Like a) Demon Again’ morphs into a melodic beeping euro-pop space rave. Harking back to their earlier 2000’s sound, the thunderous ‘When The Blackout Meets The Fallout’ and the vicious ‘Golden Rope’ rip and roar like a mad electro blasting road warrior.

Primal Scream have always been able to transmogrify their influences and sound to remain relevant, but ‘Chaosmosis’ is the most succinct document of this knack to-date. They are the journeyman who have nothing left to prove to the doubters, they’ve made a couple bonafide classics, and have carved out a reputable career for themselves. Their legacy is, and will forever be, intact as one of the finest bands in Scottish history, the combination of electro-dance and rock n’ roll iconic.



Over the years Gillespie hasn’t lost any of his political vigor, but what is perhaps even more remarkable, and translucently clear on closer ‘Autumn In Paradise’, is that he still remains as astutely embracive of the world around him.

(Trey Tyler)


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