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Osiris The Rebirth



Last Updated: 12/14/2009

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Status: Single
City: Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire
State: Midlands
Country: UK
Signup Date: 5/3/2007

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Thursday, December 10, 2009 
The Remnants of Life CD is now also available from CDBaby - this might be a more cost-effective option for purchasers in the Americas..... so now, you have no excuse .

MB
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 
 
OSIRIS THE REBIRTH - REMNANTS OF LIFE
(Rare Steak Records, www.osiristherebirth.com)
 
The name Dave Adams should be known to space cadets everywhere. On "Remnants Of Life" he joins fellow Assassins Of Silence veteran Milo Black and a star-spangled cast to present an album of spacey techno-prog-rock. With that cast including Nik Turner, Bridget Wishart and Cyndee Lee Rule, you know this is going to be a far-out trip.
 
A science-fiction computer boot-up opens the album, then it's off into the all guns blazing space rock of "Colgate Valentine," the nearest analogue of which might be early 'nineties Hawkwind. Bridget Wishart is on fine vocal form for "Starlight Scorpio," a collaborative track with Adams. The feel here is light, the ambience dubby, the synths subtle: stereo effects set to maximum for this album highlight. Black's vocals on "Siren" are an intriguing mix of Dave Brock and Robert Wyatt as he spins a tale of futuristic female capture: "You'll be her prisoner forever more, You'll never see your sanity again." A high synth quotient makes this spacey offering good listening.
 
"Gymnofeetie" is a brief instrumental offering with heavily phased guitars rippling over light synth and electronics, serving to separate two heavy tracks - very nice. "Dragonslayer" introduces Kim Novak's vocals on the second Adams/Black composition, which has more of a progressive than a space rock feel. Epic vocal backing and fine bass playing propel this mighty cut, while wah-fuzz guitars spin overhead.
 
Another science-fiction computer voice breaks up the album before Nik Turner's flute welcomes us to "Osiris," who speaks with deeply reverberant voice a quotation from the Egyptian Book Of The Dead. It's spooky, that's for sure. "Bliss" is an Adams solo composition - a second spoken invocation floating over a bed of electronics - before the track mutates into the fuzzed-out space rock of Black's "Karmic Vortex," which for almost ten minutes pits delayed guitars and oscillating synths against crunchy bass.
 
Next up, "Please adjust your body clock" - another SF announcement - then "Technology," introducing lead vocalist James Hodkinson (ex-Assassins Of Silence, now with Xoo) on a tale of techno-cloning. This track is slow and atmospheric, with Paul Blackman's sax proving a fine diversion; and more great bass from Adams. Penultimate track "End Of Something" is an extended (almost fifteen minutes) progressive epic, featuring Kim Novak's vocals, Sky Sownd's flute and Cyndee Lee Rule's viper-violin. The track weaves through moods and atmospheres on a monumental tale of light over darkness; particularly good keyboards on this track, while Cyndee is on outstanding form.
 
Space cadets will welcome this varied album of out-there rock, which for fans of Hawkwind, Krel and their ilk should make very enjoyable listening. (Stephen Palmer)
Thursday, December 03, 2009 
... for our album to be available, wait no longer. Despite flaky CD printers (won't be using THEM again!), postal delays and, bizarrely, a disappearing internet connection at the worst possible moment, you can now (finally) buy the limited edition CD of Remnants of Life from MyChoonz. An ideal Christmas gift for an elderly relative...... should also be available soon on CDBaby, but I'll let you know. The download is also available from all the usual suspects.... but you won't get the bonus track.

Meanwhile, work in the lab continues. Currently bubbling nicely and giving off noxious vapours is a tune provisionally titled TLA .... this actually started off as TWO tunes, until I realised that they'd actually fit together quite nicely as a semi-epic space-prog tune ..... this will be going at an early stage to the very lovely Bridget Wishart for her thoughts, musings and additions.

I'm sure I'll tap-tappetyy-tap-tap something before then, but if not...... a peaceful and mellow winter solstice to all of you who read this, and to everyone who's supported and encouraged us over the past year. We lubs ya, we do.

MB
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 

Current mood:  bouncy

 
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Prog-Spacerock - probably album of the year!, ..17 Nov 2009..
By Joolz (United Kingdom)
Osiris The Rebirth is the new baby of Dave Adams and Milo Black, Spacerock stalwarts lately of Hawkwind tribute band Assassins Of Silence. An inattentive observer might have expected Remnants Of Life to be a Hawkwind clone but Osiris set out their stall early on: after a subtly amusing pre-flight check ["drive status steady at 57 kilobrocks"] we lift off with a full-tilt blanga riff; but the flight soon settles on a new path where every track has its own unique ambience - power-ballad [Technology], 15 minute Prog epic [End Of Something], spooky-pyramidal Ambient [Osiris, cover of the old Sphinx track], homage to Hawkwind [Siren], Ozrics-with-vocals [Starlight Scorpio], Classic Rock [Dragonslayer], or energetic instrumental [Colgate Valentine, Karmic Vortex] with glimpses of a little jazz and even classical. It might sound like a horrendous mish-mash of styles, especially when each song has a different vocalist, but it really does work - very, very well indeed!

Prog-Spacerock is at the album's core throughout; a bedrock of floating keyboards and effects that anchor our journey through many twists and turns, diversions and loops: sometimes fast and furious; at others gentle and ethereal; dynamic, structured arrangements that seldom stand still for long yet always entrance, often with surprising transits; sublime hooks and beautiful, serene melodies that quickly worm their way into a listener's brain. The whole album is suffused with an all-encompassing Spacerock vibe: a superb combination of programming and spacey effects; a lovely selection of keyboards including Mini-Moog and Mellotron [choirs yum-yum!!]; a quasi-conceptual space-travel theme with short link pieces [the eight main songs are dreams experienced on the journey, apparently]; and cameo contributions by some leading Spacerock musicians who bring their own special identities to the party - Nik Turner [ghostly flute, on Osiris of course, brilliant], Cyndee Lee Rule [exquisite Viper, brilliant], Sky [flute, brilliant], Bridget Wishart [mellow vocals, brilliant], Kim Novak [vocals, brilliant] and James Hodkinson [big-ballad vocals, brilliant] and Paul Blackman [sax, short but brilliant]. These special guests blend well into the core band underpinned by Adams' commanding bass and Black's outstanding guitar work.


My expectations were fuelled by online posting of completed songs and regular blogged progress reports from Black. I am not disappointed! It has been a good year for Spacerock releases and Remnants Of Life may just be the best of them all: a wonderfully varied collection of songs full of energy and vitality, excellently realised with a punchy production that does credit to everyone involved. If, as I suspect for such a niche product, this was recorded `on a shoe-string' then it really is a fantastic advert for what can be achieved with the right hands on the controls: a crisp modern sound but with timeless appeal. Can't wait for the follow-up [already in progress, I believe]!!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 

Current mood:  breezy
The album Remnants of Life is available to download now on Amazon and other download sites. Physical product with 8 page booklet and hidden bonus track (on first limited edition run) available in a few days from good stockists.
Below is some info on the project:
Osiris The Rebirth is the brainchild of veteran space-rocker Dave Adams.
In 2007, while playing bass with reknowned Hawkwind tribute band Assassins of Silence,  he had the thought of resurrecting one of his early bands, Osiris.
First stop was fellow Assassins founder-member, guitarist/producer Milo Black, another veteran of the music wars with a 20-year recording pedigree. Old Osiris songs were rearranged and reworked, and new music in a similar vein began to emerge at speed.
After some experimentation with personnel, the band settled as a collective, with Dave and Milo as core members and guest contributions from other artists.
The debut CD Remnants Of Life features guest appearances from ex Hawkwind members Nik Turner (flute) and Bridget Wishart (vocals), and well-known space-rock violinist Cyndee Lee Rule.
Further lead vocals are provided by ex-Assassin James Hodkinson, currently with space-rockers Xoo and performing with Pre-Med, and by Texas-based singer Kim Novak, with whom Milo previously collaborated on the Raspberry Silk album Inner Voices.
Although not a concept album as such, the CD plays as a continuous piece, one song merging into the next, with the eight main songs framed with short dialogue inserts, suggesting that the listener is a passenger on an interstellar voyage – and perhaps implying that the songs represent the fragmented images and half-dreams that might be experienced during travel through some hypothetical non-Einsteinian space.
The music marks out the OTR home turf of space-prog – a blend of Hawkwind-esque space-rock, instrumental excursions reminiscent of Ozric Tentacles, and the experimentation with odd meters and varied orchestration typical of progressive rock. The Hawkwind and Ozrics influence is to the fore, but there are many nods to other bands and genres – even extending to some classical influence in the linking piece Gymnofeetie (a slanted reference to Satie's Gymnopedie No 1) and the piano introduction and coda to Dragonslayer. Osiris clearly do not intend to be pigeonholed – the final three tracks on the CD comprise a spacey instrumental, an accessible power-ballad with a smoky sax solo and romantic lyric (although still set in a science-fiction context) and a 15-minute prog epic, ticking all the boxes for symphonic intro, odd meters, oblique lyric, extended instrumental sections and – of course - electric violin.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 
Hello folks, minor blogger here
The new Osiris The Rebirth album Remnants of Life, featuring Cyndee Lee Rule, Nik Turner and Bridget Wishart amoungst others, is now available on download sites like Amazon, Napster etc but remember that the first batch of the physical product is a special edition with "hidden" bonus track. This will be available from mychoonz.co.uk in the next few days, and in the USA on CD Baby very soon.



Sunday, October 25, 2009 

Current mood:  satisfied
Category: Music
Wednesday night, Dave and I had a playback session with our mate Des McGovern (from the late and lamented Assassins of Silence ) to listen to the Remnants of Life album, start to finish.... and indeed we heard that it was good

Since then, I've fixed a couple of small things that I noticed on the master - but all done now. The finished CD comes out at 74 minutes exactly (including the Secret Limited Edition Bonus Track).

Track Listing:

Phase Transition Initiate
Colgate Valentine
Starlight Scorpio
(feat Bridget Wishart)
Siren
Gymnofeetie
Dragonslayer
Osiris
(feat Nik Turner)
Bliss
Karmic Vortex
Technology
End of Something
(feat Cyndee Lee Rule)
Bonus Track


Contributions also from Kim Novak (Vocals), James Hodkinson (Vocals), Sky Spirit (BVs), Sky Sownd (Flute) and Paul Blackman (Sax) - see our friends list for links.

Several of these tracks have been remixed or generally tweaked from the MySpace versions on our page. Artwork is done - so off to the printers. Should have it available online nicely in time for Christmas - the ideal gift for an elderly relative

Tea, methinks.

MB



Tuesday, October 20, 2009 

Category: Music
Well, I have just uploaded a 7-minute edit of my (hopefully) final mix of the final track on Remnants of Life. This had to be an edit, as the finished song is over 13 minutes.... which would mean that the only way to sneak it under MySpace's 10MB limit would be to make it sound shite. My long-suffering and pink-haired gf Chrissie now hates this song, as I have been fix-and-mixing it for the past 4 days..... so she will be as pleased that I am done with it as I am ;)

End of Something features Cyndee Lee Rule on Violin, Kim Novak on Vocals and Sky on flute. It's one of the most "proggy" songs on the album - as should be obvious within about 3 seconds of listening (Hey! Big Mellotron intro! Is it *really* 1972 already?.... and isn't that Rick Wakeman's Mini Moog sound?)... so this one may need to be filed under "guilty pleasures"..... don't let your kids hear you listening to this.

Album soon!

MB
Monday, October 12, 2009 

Category: Music
Heavens, I am a wild, crazy, blogging fool......

Good, productive weekend. Finished my "snippets", and also did a final mix of Osiris (the song, not the band). This is a cover of a tune on an old Sphynx album, and we have the pleasure of Nik Turner (yes, THE Nik Turner) playing floot. Dave and Nik have both heard my efforts and pronounced them good... and I'm going to be a complete bastid and not upload to MySpace - so there :) This one - and the last one - we're going to keep for the CD - give y'all a reason to buy it.... well, gotta make a living, innit?

The last one, End Of Something,  is the epic album closer, and features Kim Novak on lead vocal (Same lady as Dragonslayer), Sky (from Sky Sownd Omniversity) on (more) floot, and the ubiquitous and very lovely Cyndee Lee Rule on Viper violin..... it's a corker.

During the meanwhile, I've uploaded a special edit of a song called Siren , which will be on the CD in a slightly longer version... it's a good old-fashioned Hawkwind-esque space-rocker (no jazz muso bullshit or widdly solos on this one), with Dave doing his very best "Harvey Bainbridge's Evil Twin" in the interlude section...... give it a listen and see what I mean.

More incentives...... the first pressing of Remnants of Life will be a limited edition with a "secret" bonus track - we won't be putting it on MySpace or nuffin, it will ONLY be on the limited edition CD, and we'll take it off if we do a second pressing. So there.

BTW - thanks to everyone who comments or gives kudos on these blogs - nice to know that people are reading my intermittent and semi-coherent rantings.

Onwards, upwards, between the sheets and over the kitchen table

MB
Thursday, October 08, 2009 

Current mood:  pugnacious
Category: Music
a) Writing and arranging is fun.
b) Recording is fun.
c) Having finished music is fun.
d) The bit between b) and c) is "work".

..... but work continues. One track in particular (I won't tell you which one) has had me tearing hair (mine, or anyone else's if convenient), but I think I'm finally done and happy with it - Dave thinks it's "the single", so definite thumbs-up there (bit long though, Dave.....). The end is very much in sight - two tracks to go and some little snippets and inserts to complete.... and we arrive at c). Can't wait

Meanwhile...... a) and b) continue for "OTB album two" (yes, we're going to do another one). Dave and I both spent an evening recording the sumptuous voice of Ms Tina Thomas for one song, and there is a 20-minute epic track gradually ripening. A couple of shorter songs are written and demo-ed - but I'm resisting the temptation to do a) and b) on anything else until I have finished d) for Remnants of Life... Discipline, Milo (now *that* was a good album.......)

Recent Wordage - Bill Bruford's autobiography.

Recent Giggage - Whimwise & Cyndee Lee Rule in Swindon - great to meet Cyndee and Jeff in person, and also the very charming Nick May, main-man of the excellent Whimwise - and The Strawbs / Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash / Curved Air / Focus in Aylesbury.

Currently Never Out Of The CD Player - Ayreon's Into the Electric Castle

Onwards.

MB