Listen: Cosmo Sheldrake - "Mind Of Rocks" ft Bunty

photo by Simon Wolf

While English singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and producer Cosmo Sheldrake's previous releases "The Moss" 7", and his debut EP Pelicans We have established Sheldrake as an exceptionally talented songwriter, producer, and musician, "Come Along", the first single from Sheldrake's upcoming debut full length record The Much Much How How and I, displayed an ability to balance subtle minimalism but also incredible pop maximalism that was enough to get me properly excited for Sheldrake's full length debut and second single "Mind Of Rocks" continues to demonstrate Sheldrake as an incredibly versatile creator as well as upend all expectations of what to expect on the upcoming full length.

Despite the lack of Sheldrake's own vocals in favor of the heavily featured Brighton based artist Bunty, "Mind of Rocks" continues to weave Sheldrake's intricate production with his ever curious use of field recordings. Panamanian bats, a Scottish gale, and one of Sheldrake's beat-boxing lessons is but a few of the sounds he builds the track on. While Sheldrake hasn't shied away from being non-featured on vocals before - see "Rich" from Pelicans We which featured Andreyah Vargas, a friend of Sheldrake's, the different in the two tunes lays in the fact that the vocals in "Rich" still largely depended on Sheldrake's skillful deployment of Vargas' pre-recorded vocal samples. The result was a sort of chopped up effect that fit perfectly with the cacophonous bolder smashing Sheldrake utilized as the backbone beat of the track. "Mind Of Rocks" sees Sheldrake giving up some of the control for Bunty's more svelte, freer vocal performance. It's a track that relegates Sheldrake almost entirely to a producer role which he's proven exceptionally gifted at so far. Even as he brings in veteran composer/producer and fellow field recording enthusiast Matthew Herbert as co-producer.

And yet, there's no denying "Mind Of Rocks" is far less lush and complicatedly layered than some of Sheldrake's previous efforts - especially the multitudinous first single "Come Along" from his upcoming full length debut. But sparse - or sparser than he's been recently is refreshing and definitely provides an effective showcase of Bunty's vocals.



Cosmo Sheldrake's debut full length The Much Much How How and I is out April 6th on Trangressive with pre-order available now.

Listen: Cosmo Sheldrake - "Come Along"

The last I actually heard from English multi-instrumentalist/producer Cosmo Sheldrake, it was when I had essentially followed him around CMJ 2015, he's since done a couple of dates in the UK but remained relatively quiet as he worked on his debut full length record and follow up to his Pelicans We EP. Now with a Europe tour with Johnny Flynn underway and his own headlining tour to follow soon after, he's decided to set free "Come Along", the first single from his aforementioned work-in-progress debut full length.

On his auspicious return "Come Along", Sheldrake essentially swings for the fences going the absolute biggest he can. There's a large grandiose build full of brass fanfare before everything dips out and Sheldrake's vocals enter. Much like his most exciting Pelicans We cuts, Sheldrake balances English folk and folklore references with polished production. Though his aim is dramaticism, that doesn't mean Sheldrake's lost his subtle touch and his builds are organic, his deployment woodwinds and glockenspiel in the quieter moments are spectacularly intricate enough that the first beat-heavy climactic peak is almost unexpected. "Come Along" essentially luxuriates in these ebbs and flows while Sheldrake uses them to display not only his mastery of typical pop songcraft but his more singer/songwriter rooted lyricism while "Come Along" itself is an piece of artful production. Sheldrake hears music in everything and much like his previous songs built on some unexpected and decidedly nonmusical element like rock-splitting on "Rich" or NASA captured sound of the sun in the appropriately named "Solar", "Come Along" features the sound of a vacuum cleaner in addition to an Armenian duduk and field recordings of people juba dancing in New Orleans all seamlessly stitched together with Sheldrake's own man-made additions. Sheldrake's manages to effortlessly weave his naturalistic influences and sample archivist tendencies with such precision that it transcends mere gimmickry, instead they're an nearly impermeable layer in his music that illustrate his innovation without distracting from his obvious musicianship.

Much like his musical setting of William Blake in "The Fly" or his Alice and Wonderland referencing "The Moss", "Come Along" is derived for a similar love of prose and poetry, with Sheldrake referencing heffalumps from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories. Sheldrake's music is delightfully English featuring various winks and nods to staples of British culture but shifting the sense of traditional classicism into the modern day.



Considering how eclectic Cosmo Sheldrake's interests, inspirations, and influences are, there's no telling what his debut full length album will end up sounding like but based off Pelicans We and the incredible first offering of "Come Along", it will certainly be an innovate take on electronic music and I for one can't wait. Unfortunately fans of Sheldrake will as apart from confirming it exists, there's no news of when the album will drop. Until then though "Come Along" will do nicely. 

Pitstop: Cosmo Sheldrake

photo by Matthieu Amaré

Despite the fact that I have been known to plan incredibly rigorous and often concrete CMJ schedules, this year I found an refreshing urge for flexibility due in part to my accidental discovery of British multi-instrumentalist/producer Cosmo Sheldrake. While my CMJ plans started the day before with a kickoff party, a chance visit to trusted mainstay Pianos during Day 1 ultimately resulted in a quick, reevaluation of most if not my entire schedule.

Cosmo Sheldrake is a man of many unique talents and winsome characteristics. While his name was enough to get me into the door sight unseen, songs unheard, it was his ability to completely blow away expectation that not only made me stay but make alterations to my schedule to lengthen the experience. It wasn't an easy sell at first, I'll admit. Sheldrake is a knowledgeable, curious man and seeks to share that with the audience but his explanation of his first song "Sort of a mashup of Mongolian folk music and English folk song" had me at the ready, poised to attack with ice cold judgement but the judgement never came. What did follow was an absolutely unfathomable blend of Mongolian-inspired vocals, old style English song, and beats. Sheldrake had somehow managed to create a sort of future-folk steeped with sincerity. The son of a biologist and surprise-surprise a music teacher specializing in Mongolian overtone singing, Sheldrake's as much a product of his upbringing as he is his own interests and eccentricities. During his sets each song was introduced either by its inspiration or by the sounds Sheldrake had used to create it - ranging from everything from cut up vocal samples from friend/collaborator Anndreyah Vargas ("Rich"), the sounds of rocks being split in Wales, to the sound of the sun as captured by NASA or an African pygmy song ("The Fly").





No one song sounded the same and yet there was no denying a core character - that of Sheldrake himself as he imagines everything from life as an indestructible moss-dwelling insect ("Tardigrade Song") to an ode to nonsense creatures like the Jabberwocky ("The Moss"), even a setting of William Blake's The Fly. The most surprising thing is while drawing from this wide array of inspiration and ultimately falling under the label of producer is the organic nature of Sheldrake's song. A sampler may be at hand but Sheldrake is not one for synths and instead fashions much of his sort of naturalistic folk-infused electronic music with field recordings. Also intrigued and instantly sealing the deal for me is Cosmo Sheldrake is an accomplished improviser - studying with Bobby McFerrin at the Omega Institute. And delightfully enough, he often weaves a couple improvisations into his sets.





It was during his improvs that the true depths of Sheldrake's musicianship could be gleaned. Beatboxing, singing, keys, impressively deployed samples and/or beats, it could all be a bit overwhelming if it wasn't for Cosmo Sheldrake's deft hand.

Releasing his debut EP Pelicans We earlier this year with a full length effort forthcoming probably sometime in the next year, who knows what sounds and influences Cosmo Sheldrake will work with on the record. The one thing I know is they will certainly be interesting.