The new album by psy­che­del­ic rock­ers HENGE titled ExoKosm is unleashed upon the plan­et today. ExoKosm is, like the band’s first album, an explo­ration into the extra-ter­res­tri­al, sacred son­ic art­form that HENGE call ‘Cos­mic Dross’. 

Fea­tur­ing sev­en new tracks, ExoKosm includes HENGE’s recent­ly-released sin­gles Get Out­ta Ma House and New Plan­et, plus their first sin­gle, Exo.

Side A opens with Goldilocks – def­i­nite­ly one of my favourite tracks – there’s an intro of syn­thy fuzz and son­ic bleep­ery which shifts into euphor­ic ‘get this par­ty start­ed’ mode. Hav­ing suit­ably laid the foun­da­tions for an album of feel-good num­bers, ExoKosm main­tains a pace of upbeat dance-influ­enced tunes, weav­ing play­ful­ly through a mix of gen­res. For instance Get Out­ta Ma House is hip-hop influ­enced and is, in HENGE’s own words: “a reflec­tion of the absur­di­ty of Plan­et Earth at this point in its history”.

Side B fea­tures the rous­ing and anthemic first sin­gle Exo, which will be per­fect for the part of their live per­for­mance where you’re well past car­ing what any­one thinks of your danc­ing. The clos­er is the main­ly instru­men­tal New Plan­et, which sounds “like a spaghet­ti west­ern set in space, serv­ing as a time­ly reminder of the genius of Ennio Mor­ri­cone”. New Plan­et rides in on thun­der­ing hooves, ramp­ing up the prog and cos­mic touch­es as the track gets into its stride before even­tu­al­ly fad­ing into the distance. 

The sin­gle Exo came with a music video made entire­ly with draw­ings from HENGE’s fans. The draw­ings were swapped for a HENGE com­ic as part of an inno­v­a­tive art exchange.

Like their debut album Atten­tion Earth! this album, says HENGE, offers a ray of hope to humankind. Some­thing, I would add, that is need­ed more than ever in these dif­fi­cult times. ExoKosm should go some way to soothe our trou­bled – and dance-deprived – souls. 

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