Inside the silver goop, time stands still as Solid Waste’s sounds flow like a viscous river of spectral delight. This former trio of St. Louisans ride a wave of aural drifts and synthesized dreams into a lost future. City of the Cosmos creates a new world through weightless, heady drones. It connects on an astral level, aims directly for the third eye and simply moves through the made up histories of the imagined city weaving new connections between all the inhabitants. This music exists beyond itself.
Skyward melodies break out of the arpeggiated murk of “Designing Waterfalls,” fleeing from the lab where nature is constrained but dreams of living free. It’s such an evocative title. An earnestness saturates the lead, filtering out all the negative energy as a new dawn emerges. The title track shimmers like sun rays bouncing off towering futuristic skyscrapers creating dancing prisms of light through the streets. Hypnotic and enticing, Solid Waste continue building a world I want to live in.
It’s a shame I wasn’t aware of this group until years after they disbanded, but am thankful that City of the Cosmos is finally seeing the light of day. Liquid music like this hits me in all the right spots. As the longform “Deep Forest Portal” (another fantastic song title!) crawls through the lush green undergrowth, I feel surrounded and held close by the warm, rich tones. Solid Waste was onto something and if they don’t ever revisit these zones, at least we can visit for a little while longer.
