This is an ultimate record for the record collecting heads. Denver’s Osmium House project always mixes together elements of the most far reaching and eclectic corners of the psychedelic music universe. Elements of kosmische musik, library records and esoteric 70s film scores and more can be felt throughout Aesop Adams’ work like strange Ley lines surging through release to release. On his latest album, Dawn Club, he handcrafted mesmerizing synth and guitar-based soundscapes at home directly to tape, and the end results sound like a cult private press cassette that is half-way between early New Age music and early Bobby Beausoleil outtakes.

On this tape, now available through Island House Recordings, Adams operates totally solo while utilizing everything from guitars, bass and lap harp to synthesizers, tubular bells, drum machines and more. A total jack-of-all trades, Adams expertly harnessed this cache of instruments to generate the most eerie, atmospheric and dreamlike bed of dronescapes he could. With audible tape hiss, warble and other lo-fi elements to the production (with some outside mixing help by Andrew Weathers, who also mastered the album), the record feels like it was ripped directly from a VHS copy of a lost DIY horror film in the most pleasing of ways.

Murky, transportive and always rich with texture, mood and a thick mushroomy haze, Dawn Club is perhaps Adams at his most ambient, with rippling pools of vintage Casios and shimmering wind chimes. Kosmische musik doesn’t always have to be loud or grandiose. Sometimes, like on this tape, it can be subtle, restrained and leaning heavily upon tone to conjure alien worlds and expanded frames of mind. Listen to this tape closely with an open imagination, and you’ll surely find yourself traveling to places previously untrodden. Grab your copy from Island House today.

-KH