Citing The Beatles and Nick Drake as burning influences for your music is a logical move, but it does raise expectations for your album’s contents to a potentially unassailable level. Such a bold claim also leaves you vulnerable to unfavourable comparison, yet Oslo’s Kosmoratik have utilised such legendary acts to create their own, idiosyncratic music that at times is frankly stunning.
Their approach is to focus in on balanced, lush and compact pop songs which are then embellished with clever curves to maintain an intriguing edge. Take Nothing Is Static, superficially an alluring, singer-songwriter type pop tune, but with a Sgt Pepper vibe that lifts it above the standard.
Unfinished Journeys has a similar feel, with a string section adding a lushness to the already moving ballad. Indeed, there is a consistency that runs throughout Gravitation that is uncommon in first albums, the only real exception being Years Ago, Miles Apart, which lacks the sparkling production and in all honesty sounds like an outtake from The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Such trifling deficiencies aside, Gravitation is an album of rare eloquence crying out to be added to your collection.
