The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds FLAC download

The mono version was also manufactured by Polydor in the UK. Still called EKL-4009, and with runout numbers EKL 4009A (A) and EKL 4009B (A)

The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds - a Concept Album 1967 - The idea began in 1967 with Jac Holzman,and hired Alex Hassilev, a member of The Limeliters, to produce it. Hassilev in turn brought in Mort Garson, to write the music. With its traditional rock instruments alongside early synths and electronics, exotic percussion, sitars, harpsichords, bells and other effects. The Zodiac is not really a band, per se, but a gathering of some of the hottest session musicians of the time. The music is all instrumental, but backs periodic,poetic recitations by Cyrus Faryar, as he goes through each of the twelve signs of the zodiac,giving each one a character to represent it. Personnel: Cyrus Faryar – narration - Paul Beaver – Moog and other electronic instruments - Emil Richards – exotic percussion - Bud Shank – bass flute - Hal Blaine – drums - Carol Kaye – bass guitar - Mike Melvoin – keyboards - Produced by Alex Hassilev - Music written by Mort Garson - - -.-.-.-. om hari om ..... ॐ

From Julian Cope’s Head Heritage: The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds (The Seth Man, June 2000)This album, complete with psychedelic illustration of the twelve sun signs set on a black background with hand drawn groovy letters, always intrigued me. Not least of all the bright pink legend on the bottom of the back cover which cryptically stated: “MUST BE PLAYED IN THE DARK.” Why? Was it satanic? Would I go mad? Or would I simply forfeit its true meaning by playing it in broad daylight? I mean, later rock albums like “Ziggy Stardust” or “Let It Bleed” would simply require the listener to play at maximum levels, but this? For some reason it vexed the living daylights out of me every time I thought of it. Years later I saw it again in a used record shop. ‘Oh, no,’ I thought by reflex, ‘that Zodiac album again’. As I inspected it, it came to me: Hey...It’s on Elektra. 1967. Released two albums after The Doors’ first.And it’s psychedelic as all get out. It’s just GOT to be a classic. So just buy the thing and leave a note for the puzzle farm indicating manner of present mental condition: sheer unbalanced madness. Cause: mysterious rock album on Elektra. I bet this never happened to anyone, I thought, “Cosmic Sounds” under my arm and heading home with me in broad daylight, destined for immediate turntable spinning. I laughed like crazy when the needle hit the first track -- an unmistakable Moog synthesizer WOOOOOOOO came out of the speakers and backed by a totally L.A. sessionman-styled rock out armed with extensive harpsichord action. When it broke down to random sitar strums and the first emergence of three sentence narrations on “Aries-The Fire Fighter”, then I really started to laugh. Looking at the credits, I saw no group credited as such, just “original music composed, arranged and conducted by Mort Garson,” Paul Beaver on electronic instruments and Cyrus Fayar on narration. As well as Elektra’s president, graphic designer, producer, et al., all with their respective zodiac signs in parentheses! The instrumental segment continued for a bit, then crashed to a stop, giving space for the narration with: “Nine times the colour red explodes like heated blood.” I had been laughing at my ridiculously overblown 14-year old paranoia, but now I started laughing at THAT all the way until “Cancer-The Moon Child.” Here I quickly hushed as it had finally reached the cosmic territory promised in the title, an eerie beginning courtesy of the first Moog on a rock album ever. But then it slid into a lighthearted romp with a fuzz guitar straight out of a late sixties commercial for the ultimate airline for swingers! If it continued like this at least until “Virgo-The Perpetual Perfectionist,” I thought, this record will drive me over the brink with laughter. So drew the shades and TURNED OUT THE LIGHT and began again. By the time I did get to “Virgo-The Perpetual Perfectionist” I began to hear the record in a completely different light: Opening with click clack percussion and acoustic guitar and flute, it soon weaved into a harpsichord and Moog texturing that, despite its brevity, was quite beautiful. Side two’s cosmic raga opener, “Libra-The Flower Child” opened with some extremely quiet Moog, accompanied by tablas and sitar. By complete contrast, “Scorpio-The Passionate Hero” was all strident drums marching off to war and many a Moog whoosh as a menacing harpsichord pattern emerged, building with a fuzz guitar. Early synthesizer corkscrews were jettisoned into my darkened room, and I began to notice the how great the album sounded, with a dynamic range approaching that of a classical record. The cheery “jumping Jupiter things” of “Sagittarius-The Versatile Daredevil” appears, all circus-like and the complete opposite to the Capricorn track, the eeriest trip-out on the album. A thin, thin fuzz guitar is plucked against a continual swelling of descending chords, and was VERY effective in the dark. “Aquarius-The Lover of Life” begins as a Latin-based shuffle theme from childhood, all Moog sooth-out and peaceful vibes. “Pisces-The Peace Piper” is just as cosmic, drum-less save for hollow bells struck and atmospherically-correct vibraphones. Echoed, hollowed bells are struck twice in finality, ending an album of timeless themes with a psychedelic perspective that could only have been recorded at this time. The whole integrated package still speaks to me after all these years, and taught me never to be superstitious about liner notes ever again.

The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds was an album released on the ELEKTRA label in August 1967 in the U.K. It was heavily played by John Peel on his Perfumed Garden shows, where he used it as a basis for a competition (He had been sent a copy by Clive Selwood, the then head of Elektra’s London office and later to become Peel’s manager).The LP was extremely popular with Perfumed Garden listeners and was mentioned in the lyrics of Geoffrey Prowse’s fan tribute to the program, “The Perfumed Garden Blues, or John Peel’s lament”.''He played the Mothers of Invention and the Velvet Underground / He played some freaky music called the Zodiac Cosmic Sounds..."The 12-track concept album featured both music and spoken narration on the theme of signs of the zodiac. Based on an initial idea by Elektra chief Jac Holzman, it was a collaborative effort with music written by Mort Garson, words by Jacques Wilson, and narration by Cyrus Faryar. The early use of the Moog synthesizer was by Paul Beaver. There was no artist called either The Zodiac or Cosmic Sounds, a fact which confused some buyers of the LP. The back sleeve informed listeners that the record "MUST BE PLAYED IN THE DARK".In 1994, Peel played the LP again in full over three months on his BBC Radio One shows in a regular spot shortly after the 5.30 news on Saturday afternoons, to follow a similar run through the ‘Astrology Songs’ album of Harvey Sid Fisher.Peel continued to broadcast selections from the 1967 LP into the 21st century, usually coupled with more contemporary tracks with similar themes. On 13 August 2002, he commented:“Hasn’t really stood the test of time terribly well, but at the same time, clutches at the heart slightly.”

What a strange recording! It has a lot of psych elements and the spoken word really ties it together. Reminds me of Aphrodite's Child. 4/5

This is truly a great album, as far as I'm concerned. Many people might dislike the narration from Cyrus Faryar, the subject matter, or perhaps the psychedelic rock (which was just shortly before Sgt. Pepper). Anyways, Elektra put out an album inspired by the Zodiac with the help of LA session musicians and had it released in May 1967 (not November, as popularly believed, read on). The label on the LP reads: "This recording was published in May 1967", and a May 20, 1967 issue of Billboard was already advertising the album, with further mentions in a June 10 and July 8 issues (the July 8 issue has the album mentioned in the "New Action Albums" section which is a short section on albums that hadn't entered the Billboard charts but reported getting strong sales action by record dealers).Most of these musicians involved has appeared on many major hits from major L.A. acts of the time, The Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Association, the Monkees, the Mamas and the Papas, just about any L.A. group that emphasized vocal harmonies. They were Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Bud Shank, as well as Paul Beaver and Cyrus Faryar. Mort Garson helped in the writing (he also recorded a 12 LP set of the zodiac himself called Signs of the Zodiac in 1969 on A&M, each sign sold separately). The instruments included the usual rock setup of guitar, bass, and drums, plus flute, sitar, Moog, electric harpsichord, and Hammond organ. Narration reminds me of Jim Morrison, I guess intentional given the massive success Elektra had with The Doors. Although I don't know a whole lot about Cyrus Faryar, he was apparently involved in the folk scene.It seems like the British caught on to this album (it did receive a UK release). The Scottish band Writing on the Wall covered "Aries" in a Black Sabbath/Crazy World of Arthur Brown manner on their album The Power of the Picts (1969), and East of Eden borrowed "Taurus" for their "In the Stable of the Sphinx" off their album Mercator Projected (1969). Also Justin Hayward stated this album had a big impact on the Moody Blues as they were recording Days of Future Passed, another proof that Cosmic Sounds was released earlier than November 1967, as Days of Future Passed was recorded in October 1967 (and released the following month). The spoken dialog was probably what inspired the Moody Blues to do the same (it was Mike Pinder, not Graeme Edge who recited the poetry, even though it was Graeme Edge who wrote them).What I love is the combination of psychedelia, world music, and synthesizer, all this shortly before the release of Sgt. Pepper. I doubt even if Sgt. Pepper was never released, that Cosmic Sounds would take the world by storm as many detractors thought of it as a dated relic (if not the rock music part, many felt the astrological subject matter was what dated it the most). The psychedelic rock seems pretty much of its time, but I really love the non-commercial approach these musicians did here (given the very commercial approach they did on those hit records they played on). The electronics are often ahead of its time, some of it downright ambient. The Moog was never used here to show it off like an Emerson, Lake & Palmer album, it was used for embellishment much like on the Beatles' Abbey Road. Plus the world music influence really trips me out, especially the flute found on "Virgo" (sounds like Paul Horn's Inside the Taj Mahal backed by a psychedelic band). Since I wasn't alive in 1967, I don't have any problem with whatever aspect of it being dated. I really find this an underrated album, but is one of my favorites from the late 1960s.

The astro-speak deep voiceover may be difficult for many to handle, but for anyone wishing to dismiss the music, they should first consider it has been sampled and drawn on for inspiration by electronica psychedelicists Broadcast, as well as one or two other contemporaries. But even without those credentials, any accomplished musician listening past the words to the music will know it is far from 'thin'. In fact, if Elektra were to release a sessions mix of this album, sans voice, it would skyrocket to paramount cult status in no time. Mort Garson never did anything so sophisticated before or after this.