PLS.trio: Cosmonauts

Those in need of more elbow room, air space and humor may take quite a liking to the exploratory ventures found within the binary code of PLS.trio's multi-musics mashing Cosmonauts, available from Dot Time Records.

It can be said we've heard this approach before, and we could compare it to this group or that individual or so-and-so quartet but, why the hell bother? A crash course of brash envoy and brazen definitions, Cosmonauts is crisp, wild fun; something we all deserve in case you haven't noticed or ventured far outside yourself these last five or six sad years.

Visceral with possibility, pianist/synthesizer-ist and namesake Pier Luigi Salami, electric/synth bassist Martin Fowler and drummer/percussion synthesist Shawn Crowder pull you into their shifting ellipse via equal parts chugging electronica, rushing, whip-smart melodic advancement and power prog rock bombast. In other words, exactly like did on their 2015 debut, East River (Echo Chamber Music), the PLS.trio never once hesitates to mix it up, light the fuse and let the sparks fall where they may.

Never excessive like so many electronica infused outings can be, "Look Ahead," the third track in, gives Cosmonauts all the punch, gravity, credence, and quick draw crackle a three-and-a-half star review rightly warrants. Once you savor and add in the vibrant mischief of the feverish title track, the driving, flip-side, ostinato funhouse romps "B.E.C." and "FO," and the lushly stated "#stronglion," Cosmonauts easily gets bumped to four stars.