COSMIC DROSS 26th May 2023
I had the joy of seeing Henge play once and it was a wonderful amalgam of silly costumes, party dance music and serious themes. Hard to believe they are on their third album and they’ve not massively changed; providing the same burst of cosmic rays as before.
Just take the opener, ‘Get a Wriggle On’. Snaking along on a busy groove with a cheesy 60’s keyboard sound and cheeky encouragement to get a move on before the earth is destroyed by lazy human destruction. The highs and the lows. Dance while you burn? Or maybe be inspired to take action or dance as a rest from the action.
Always busy and full of little melodies and bits that sound like musicals. And I picture the singer as he was at the gig, in a full alien head mask and robes. Kind of a musical Tharg (for you UK comics fans of a certain age). A funky flatbeat drives ‘Tardigrades’ which is about, urm, tardigrades. Delightfully unnecessarily, it describes what the tiny indestructible creatures are and what they do. Similarly, ‘DNA’ describes DNA in a very Kraftwerkian way – little sequencer patterns and treated reverb delay vocals.
That was a slice of ‘Side A’. Side B’ is a little spacier and dreamier, complementing and balancing the set.
I’m left with memories of rushing drums, flowing synths, daft vocals, portentous vocals and general silly serious fun. Eco-centric dance bangers make for smiles.
See our live review and pictures from 2018
Author: Ross McGibbon