Name: The Cosmic Game
Brand: Thievery Corporation

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

ESL081LP

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-07-01

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Proper

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Thievery Corporation

Genre GB

R&B / Neo-Soul

Label GB

<p>Thievery Corporation is an American electronic music duo formed by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton in 1995. Their unique sound blends elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern music, hip hop, electronica, and Brazilian bossa nova.</p>
<p>Garza and Hilton first met at the Eighteenth Street Lounge in Washington DC in May 1995. They bonded over their shared love for the work of Antonio Carlos Jobim, '60s-'70s bossa nova, and jazz. Inspired by their discussions, they began working on music together in a home studio shortly after. Thievery Corporation released their debut LP "Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi" on ESL Music after gaining recognition with several early 12" singles.</p>

The ingredients -- electronic beats, dub, soft Brazilian tones, sitars, and women singing in foreign languages -- are entirely the same, but Thievery Corporation have never sounded so genuine. Despite the same old sound and a busy release schedule leading up to it, The Cosmic Game comes across as fresh as a debut and surprisingly indifferent toward being the in thing. What it is is music for music's sake, all laid out with the utmost care, giving listeners a fully thought-out album that makes the "forward" button on your CD player purposeless. Effortlessly flowing from the indie-grooving "Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)" with the Flaming Lips to reggae to samba to psychedelia and beyond, the album is trimmed of all fat. Instrumentals with clever grooves sometimes overstayed their welcome on previous Thievery albums, but here they're whittled down to interludes when need be and positioned as chillout segues between the more striking numbers. 

The druggy, Perry Farrell-inna-reggae-style "Revolution Solution" is one of these stunners, but the superstars don't own all the highlights. As dank, Jamaican-flavored horns echo into the distance, siren Sista Pat lures listeners into the deep world of "Wires and Watchtowers" while soulful crooner Notch takes things uptown on the cool "Amerimacka" before the Corp turn the tune into one of their stickiest dub outings yet. The pleasant "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" deserves mention because David Byrne guests on vocals, and while it's very good, it's the most forgettable number on this outing. The track brings a very slight reminder of when Thievery Corporation have let ambition trump the meaningful and meaty, but the otherwise purposeful and certain Cosmic Game is so darkly delicious you have to admit it's their masterwork.

The Cosmic Game

Music GB