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Primal Scream Chaosmosis First International

18.03.16

I think it’s important to establish quickly in this review that there is authentic academic theory present in the title of Primal Scream’s 11th studio album Chaosmosis, though it’s highly complex stuff. One reviewer reduced the theory thus: Philosopher Felix Guttarri’s project is to redefine subjectivity/objectivity and to rework phenomenology and psychoanalysis. This all seems overly complex for a record that hasn’t redefined anything with its output of dated sounding electronics and confusing mix of collaborators. Haim and Primal Scream isn’t a match anyone asked for and utterly dreadful opener Trippin’ On Your Love genuinely sounds like Primal Scream satarising early Primal Scream. Thankfully the highly produced bombast of their next joint outing 100% Or Nothing is a lot better. There are obvious lyrical paths and clichés across the whole record – not least on I Can Change which also feels like elevator music.

Loosely the whole thing is a stab at some kind of retro-synth futurism and there are dystopian themes present and most prominent on When The Black Out Meets The Fallout, the closest thing that comes to sounding something replicable from XTRMNTR, which is still arguably their best work to date. On the whole though Chaosmosis feels confusing, unthreatening and disjointed, which is a shame, as I’d hoped they were a band who still had a bit left in the tank.