It’s perfectly acceptable to listen to Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo from British collective Hey Colossus and find yourself wondering what in Sam Hell is going on. And I think that’s at least part of the point. This isn’t a band aiming to make some profound philosophical revelation. They’re just well, a little cuckoo. Even the title of the album suggests that we not take ourselves so seriously. But CLLLC is seriously good.
I cannot attest to their previous releases as this is my first exposure to HC (serendipity!). Ultimately that is inconsequential. On Cuckoo, the septet finds a sick, groovy riff and strip mines that sucker, extracting gold from the ore. Doing so isn’t a quick process either. Not only do the tracks on CLLLC stretch past the six-minute mark at the shortest, it also takes a little time for the listener to fully realize the finished product. Taking that central riff and building around it, HC layers in synths and psychedelics. Inject hobo-cum-mental patient vocals and you have a cornucopia of wonderful weirdness.
‘Hot Grave’ gets the party started with a head-bobbin’ groove and forceful vocals. Perhaps the most straightforward track on the album, it gets the juices flowing and the blood pumping. ‘Oktave Dokktor’ is a bass heavy bumper. That slow bass riff sinks in deep to massage out those tensions and flows seamlessly into the experimental ‘How To Tell Time With Jesus’. Over ten minutes of acidic insanity again swirling around central repetitive riffs. Melodies, voices and synths rise and fall in disorienting fashion. ‘LeatherLake’ ups the trippy factor with spacey keys and gargantuan heaviness. Sail away on the ship named ‘English Flesh’. It’ll have you drifting on the seas of psychosis with hypnotic delight. The final trip is ‘Pit And Hope’, a drifting, spacey and soothing conclusion.
For such a confusing and noisy album, Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo is startlingly catchy. Each track has that element that stands at the center as everything else creates the space around it. Open minds will revel in its eccentricity and those “chemically enhanced” listeners may just lose their minds. (Trust me. I know.) Each spin reveals more depth on a record teaming with spirit. It’s fun. It’s freaky. It’s fantastic.
8.5/10
Matt Hinch