Band : Cuzo
Album Title : Otros Mundos
Label : Alone
Distributor : Clearspot
Release Date : 2010
Review : CD

CUZO were formed as a three-piece Barcelona-based jam outfit in 2007 by Iván Román (bass) and Pep Caravantes (drums, percussion) - two founding members of a Spanish doom metal band Warchetype, and Jamie L. Pantaleon (guitars). A natural follow-up to their debut album, Otros Mundos is another imaginative melding of different musical genres under the broad definition, instrume(n)tal  rock tag.

The first thing to note is that Cuzo have managed to capture a very raw, organic sound - it really does feel as if the band have just plugged in and started to play, something that suits the music down to the ground. “Coche imaginario” is like a Neu/ Rotor/ Zombi hybrid, with floating synths and washes of guitar, backed with very laid-back drumming. “Astroratas”, “Robots en movimiento” and “Mutante continuo” are excellent space excursions worth taking, featuring droning and warbling, crushing guitars and the like, but with a strong rock rhythm section giving it more drive than your average instrumental-rock band. Cuzo fully developes a dark, swirling, thunderous psychedelic sound.

So who is this album going to appeal to? It’s actually quite a tricky question, some bands that could be used as reference points: Zombi, Can, Mammatus, Stinking Lizaveta even a hint of Blue Cheer but really this album is quite different.

90/100

Cosmicmasseur.