Help Your Satori Mind

Cosmic Invention is a true supergroup of Japanese psychedelia -- at its head are Masaki Batoh of the excellent folk/psych project Ghost, Michio Kurihara of the conventionally psychedelic White Heaven, and drummer Futoshi Okano from Blaze Subvert, as well as a cast of other, similarly-minded musicians. On Help Your Satori Mind, the results are as spectacular as one could wish -- the album plants itself in conventionally rocking psychedelia that's a little more musular than White Heaven's usual, but it also takes some folky turns that betray the Ghost involvement. More importantly, the project covers some new territory -- when tracks like "La Shorai" find atmospheric pulses that have little to do with the rock orientations of some of the involved bands, Cosmic Invention proves itself as an incredibly worthwhile project beyond the mere supergroup status. ~ Nitsuh Abebe