Yuri Gagarin - Yuri Gagarin vinyl lp (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)
SKU
SER 33LP
"Yuri Gagarin, according to all non-Biblical, non-religious sources, was the first human to enter space. He died in 1968. Now if you take 1968 as a year in music, you have iconic releases by Silver Apples & The Velvet Underground, two releases apiece by Blue Cheer & Iron Butterfly, the first Quicksilver Messenger Service record...but most importantly (to this review at least), Krautrock and Space Rock bands were beginning to form and record. Fitting, then, that the year of Gagarin’s passing marked the year music was taking its first tentative steps into the Cosmos.
Yuri Gagarin the band is a ‘heavy space rock’ collective from Gothenburg. ‘Heavy space rock’ could, realistically, be anything. They could sound like Hawkwind, or sound like Faust. Both are equally ‘heavy’ bands that explore Space in both sound and performance, but are vastly different in terms of their actual music. ‘First Orbit’, the first track on Yuri Gagarin’s self-titled release, is more on the former side of the fence. Their blend of space rock is a squalling, spiralling mess of sonic colours designed to push the listener “Furthur”.
From what I can gather, Yuri Gagarin attempt to split the very time-space continuum we find ourselves a part of with ‘The Big Rip’. And boy is it a big ‘un. The track has the longest run time of the record, just shy of 11 minutes, and it’s a fitting final act for the grand cosmic adventure you’ve found yourself taking for the previous half an hour. It’s the best track on the record, though all of them are stellar. There’s the ghost of Detroit lingering beneath the layers of space gloop – a driving, leather and grease rhythm that carries the weight of the hefty run-time on its sweaty shoulders. The guitar fireworks take up the whole middle movement of the song, and they never get any less than top marks. The music pushes on and on until it explodes into what sounds like the death of cyberspace. Highly recommended.
Basically, I loved it. It’s a quality release, crafted by people that obviously know the right buttons to press to make people float down the stream of their own consciousness, abandoning their ego while flying through the electric field of matter and time and onwards towards the Great Truth. It’s a groove-fest made by stoners for stoners, and has a kickass cover you could lose yourself in. Now can you dig that my psychedelic brothers and sisters?"-The Sleeping Shaman