Happens every year: I do my list of favourite albums and along comes one just after I’ve pressed send and totally blows me away. Having said that I’m not sure what I would have dropped to accommodate ‘At The Centre Of All Infinity’ by Gothenburg’s Yuri Gagarin, but there is absolutely no way that it would not have made it onto the list had I heard it in full around a week earlier.
This is the Swedish five-piece’s second full album but, although they have been going since 2012, I have just come across the band with this release. This is just in time to catch the third pressing of the first, self-titled, album on Sulatron Records which is well worth investigating. This, as was the second pressing, is a remix version of the debut also available for download on the band’s bandcamp page (a CD version is also available from Sulatron). In addition the is an absolutely brilliant two track release from September of this year ‘Sea of Dust’/ ‘Psychological Discontinuity’; the latter of which may well be my track of the year.
Yuri Gagarin, as you might guess from the name, play space rock that is not to complicated nor is is particularly innovative. So why am I raving about it so much? Well for me it is superbly played and massively atmospheric. The band are most definitely more than a sum of their parts and mange to play together with such affinity, a sonic mixture which propels both them and the listener to the stars. For me space rock does not work without this empathic approach, it becomes just some noodling background noise that pecks at your head but never gets inside. These monster tunes with their throbbing rhythm section, piercing synths and massive riffs together mount a huge assault on the synapses and burrow their way into you brain in a way that makes you realise that resistance is wholly futile. Once you’ve given in you are left to immerse yourself in an astral pleasure cruise to somewhere else altogether.
In ‘At The Centre Of All Infinity’ Yuri Gagarin have shown that, collectively, they are masters of the sonic universe that they have created. It’s a huge expanse of mind-fucking loveliness that I for one want to spend as much time in as possible.
Nothing short of ESSENTIAL!
Band line up:
Christian “Crille” Lindberg: Lead guitar
Leif Göransson: Bass guitar
Stefan “Steffo” Johansson: Drums
Robin Klockerman: Synthesizers
Jon Eriksson: Rhythm guitar
‘At The Centre Of All Infinity’ is released by Kommun2 in December 2015, grab a copy before they disappear into the space-time continuum. Check out the band’s Facebook page for availability.
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