Album released April 20, 2010
Ride the weirdness of my contact experience ritualistically listening to this album during a mandatory band 'shroom listening party/psilocybin sound ritual shortly after it was released (The Galactic Dialogue: Occult Initiations):
“We took the chocolates and watched The Sarah Silverman Show and The Mighty Boosh. By the second episode of the Boosh, we could only kind of feel them starting to kick in a bit. It felt like we’d gotten a mild dose and considered taking more, but I thought this was a good time to play the record and experiment with a bit of low dosage trials. As mentioned, I’ve found this more than somewhat helpful in the past, as it aids in differentiating whether or not it’s more the chemical rush causing the experience or the external stimuli. On this particular occasion, as mentioned, none of us were feeling anything more than mildly tripped out before we threw the disc in. To give a bit of back story, the album we’d just made and the project, Black Science, in general was largely designed, like a lot of my other work with Thanaton as a means to channel discarnate forms of otherworldly sentience. Another way of putting it would be to say it’s the most intentionally psychedelic shit I could come up with.
Fucking with my own head has always been a primary passion, and true to form, the second we hit play the phantasmal images began to bombard my thoughts with a pleasant intensity. Then, about a third through the album it happened. I once again saw the thousand eyed god within. The rapidly mutating imagery then fused into more structured fluctuations. They eyes were all there but in a billion exotic configurations. As the music continued, an internally cosmic wave of bliss floated through my being. God, the shirts from the night before. They’d started all of this with the power of suggestion. They were the trigger, the stimuli that inspired this particular foray into Chapel Supremesus. Alex Grey channeled the forever creatures through his great works. Although our popular psychology will seemingly never acknowledge it, external sensory stimulation and internal chemical manipulation are the very keys, the means to reprogram the underlying infrastructure of the mind. Quasi-objective spiritual experiences can be summoned with deranged sound rituals such as these.
After enjoying the multi-eyed art ride for a few songs, things suddenly kicked themselves up a notch. I was bombarded by visionary imagery of the insect world, spiders in particular. Compound eyes, billions of them—connected in a manner well past my primitive level of comprehension. Things got so odd. There was a supreme beauty in their world that I never would have considered contemplating on my own. We see them as terrifying. Insignificant. Hideous. But it’s what we’re not seeing. The kaleidoscopic thought dancing. The interwoven familial love radiating between them. The sense of community. I felt it all for a brief period as the onslaught of delayed guitar noise reverberated through my soul structure.
Then they kicked it up another notch. All of a sudden the voluminous, extravagant eyes began to morph into images of sea spiders, crabs, crustaceans, and various other underwater dwellers of similar persuasions. So many deviant variations of DNA. While these visions continued, it suddenly clicked in an intuitive way. Oh, I get it. You’re the creative intelligence responsible for a wide manner of sea creatures in addition to insects. I was never giving whatever the fuck it is you are nearly enough credit. There is an understanding now.
Or is there? In the days and weeks to come, the hypnagogic light entities fed me information continuously. I’d wake up, and there’d be these thousand eyed projections floating in the midst of my spirit. We’re all connected. We are what your Bible would refer to as the Holy Spirit. They didn’t say these things specifically. They showed me, at one point in very specific detail. I felt my world and level of contribution. From there it receded in a quick jolt. I was amidst the eyes, they conjoined all of these other plotlines. I was a part of them, but they were for all intents and purposes, intertwined in infinite detail. So much going on that I’d never be privy too, but it was all connected on one level, functioning as a solidified unit like particles in an atom.
Select Reviews:
"This is the kind of music that inevitably takes the listener into some other, weird world and I love it."
-- Psychotropic Zones
"Part Psych, Part Doom, Part Metal but all mixed in with some wonderful Space Rock groovyness. Parts Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind all jamming together in the vastness of space."
-- Sludgelord "Seattle-based Black Science encase and uncoil heavy, driving lines of psychedelic rock. Their song "Consensus of Rapids" puts your ear-brain in a steel hull ... they pull you through torrents to a distortion crescendo of white-water noise. Sonically dark and weighty, Black Science swell with meters and phaser-effected guitars similar to those of the band Trans Am."
-- The Stranger
Progarchives.com:
"BLACK SCIENCE is one of my finest discoveries in recent days. The Seattle-based foursome operates under aliases, I'm quite sure ... and this is where the mystery already begins. What really strikes though is their sound, unique and fascinating. 'Cosmodemonic & Beyond' is the band's second album in the meanwhile, released in August 2010, and outfitted with a refined setting which wraps me in some way.
Now, obviously, as for a proper orientation, album and song titles respectively cover art are strictly pointing to space rock roots of course. The opener The Universe Personified apparently shows Hawkwind references, however there is more ... a hallucinogenic outfit in between ... the hypnotic groove backed by a powerful rhythm branch ... the strong jamming attitude later spiked with diverse mysterious electronics and samples. Overall this sounds that rounded and pleases me much - great start-up.
On Theta 8 swirling synths and excellent vocals complement the overall impression - this seems to meander aimlessly first, but picks up another excellent groove further on. A dynamic garage mood controls Another Space Anomaly where Consensus Of Rapid soars to another album highlight including excellent guitar work, etheral voices ... and a nervous breakdown as well. While under way with their Resurrection Ship later this first reminds me of Talking Heads as for the shell but also offers a tremendous guitar thunderstorm in between, wow!
45 inspired minutes are way more than 80 minutes of randomness - I would classify 'Cosmodemonic & Beyond' a rounded affair. The fundament is groovy heavy space rock in any case, and there's always a slight doom background to state for example. What makes it attractive in the end is the variety, the jamming parts are gripping. When thinking of similar bands Omnia Opera come into my mind. Would be really interesting to know how this works live on a stage. Great spirit all in all"
Here's the rather awesome no-fi video Ryk made for The Universe Personified back in the day:
And when I was looking this up, I realized that a fan had just made an Into the Void/2001 Space Odyssey mashup video for Consensus of Rapids as well, which is pretty fucking amazing honestly. Check it:
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