Review: Afterlife - Metacosm (Subatomic)

Post death postulations are not really at the top of your average music fan, even after Halloween, but when it comes to Afterlife's album 'Metacosm', it's all looking good for us.

Whlst the cover looks suspiciously like a wallpaper from the Mildmay Club, the music on 'Metacosm' is anything but dated in the 60/70s.

In fact, Afterlife's 8 tracks here are pretty cosmic, especially 'Summer Of Dub' which stands out as it's the only proper dubby track on here but I'd be keen to have this on a 12" as it'll be in my top ten of the year!

And the rest of the album, is equally as good as we go from warm synth drenched beaches of 'Baja' to Steely Dan influenced jazzy dreams of 'Ice Nine' - is that ice melting into cocktails, or the environment having a melt down?

And if we need to escape this planet (and make a nuisance of ourselves somewhere else), lets go to the Tangerine Dream-werk kraft shelter for a gentle synth-a-cade 'I Saw You Dancing On Mars'.  

'Tonal' and 'Chickens' ups the pace so you can get you on the actual dancefloor with our own electric dreams; I'd say the same for the title track but it reminds me a dubby version of the theme to BBC's 'Click' (not one of my favs I'm affraid); perhaps a deeper dub like 'Summer Of Dub' remix would win me over?

There's lots of synths, keys and electronics gone into this by Steven Miller (aka Afterlife) and there's more to this chillout exploration than you'd guess - funnily enough, wasn't Pete Lawrence (aka Mr. Big Chill himself) saying the other day that DJ Johnnie Walker "introduced" him to the sounds of Steely Dan?   

So as we now enter the winter months, let 'Metacosm' be the album to make Afterlife be the cool Balearic beach of 2024.   As I've indicated, this album is full of warmth that leaves the listener with a beautiful afterglow.  

P.S. More on the cosmos from the plant world at Weeds Up To Me Knees (see HERE)

Artist: Afterlife
Title:  Metacosm
Release date: 22nd November, 2024
Label : Subatomic
Catalog Number : TBC
Format: JUNO DOWNLOAD / Digital / Bandcamp