Cosmos Factory - Cosmos Factory (An Old Castle Of Transylvania) (1973)

Cosmos Factory – a progressive group formed in Nogoya, 1970. They moved to Tokyo the next year, acquired a manager [who was also a well-known rock critic] and got to work. The band are now perhaps best known for their first album, ‘Cosmos Factory’ (a.k.a. ‘An Old Castle of Transylvania’) [Columbia, 1973], which has long been the easiest to obtain on CD. In the Ultima Thule shop catalogue it’s compared to Far East Family Band; I find this very misleading, as the only similarities I can hear are in their worst moments, ie. when they get into their cod-emotive sappy balladic crooning. Other than those bits, which take up a lot of space, it’s a pretty good to great album, with heavier bits as well as spacey and slightly ominous progressive rock reminiscent of a blend of The Nice, Arzachel and early Pulsar, with cool use of the Moog. Anyway, this album brought them a lot of recognition and they began playing support for big western bands of the era such as Humble Pie and The Moody Blues, both then well past their prime and probably overshadowed by their unique support act!
The next album, ‘A Journey With The Cosmos Factory’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1975], reputedly enters weirder realms and was well-received. ‘Blackhole’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1976] is reputedly comparable to complex King Crimson in some ways. Around this time, the band also began making music for film soundtracks and TV themes. Their last album, ‘Metal Reflection’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1977], has a reputation for being more of a metal/hard rock thing, but it’s actually a lot more varied than that. It’s a pretty good album containing proggy hard rock, proggy metal, spacey prog, cosmic funk, a ballad, and almost omnipresent synthesisers. Some bits are reminiscent of some Magical Power Mako circa ‘Jump’ [see below]. The production is excellent. They also released a number of rare EP’s - ‘Fantastic Mirror’ [1975], ‘The Infinite Universe Of Our Mind’ (a promo release) [1975] and ‘Days In The Past’ [1975]. The first album has been reissued on CD by Coca/Nippon Columbia; the next 3 by Toshiba EMI Cosmos Factory – a progressive group formed in Nogoya, 1970. They moved to Tokyo the next year, acquired a manager [who was also a well-known rock critic] and got to work. The band are now perhaps best known for their first album, ‘Cosmos Factory’ (a.k.a. ‘An Old Castle of Transylvania’) [Columbia, 1973], which has long been the easiest to obtain on CD. In the Ultima Thule shop catalogue it’s compared to Far East Family Band; I find this very misleading, as the only similarities I can hear are in their worst moments, ie. when they get into their cod-emotive sappy balladic crooning. Other than those bits, which take up a lot of space, it’s a pretty good to great album, with heavier bits as well as spacey and slightly ominous progressive rock reminiscent of a blend of The Nice, Arzachel and early Pulsar, with cool use of the Moog. Anyway, this album brought them a lot of recognition and they began playing support for big western bands of the era such as Humble Pie and The Moody Blues, both then well past their prime and probably overshadowed by their unique support act!
The next album, ‘A Journey With The Cosmos Factory’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1975], reputedly enters weirder realms and was well-received. ‘Blackhole’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1976] is reputedly comparable to complex King Crimson in some ways. Around this time, the band also began making music for film soundtracks and TV themes. Their last album, ‘Metal Reflection’ [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1977], has a reputation for being more of a metal/hard rock thing, but it’s actually a lot more varied than that. It’s a pretty good album containing proggy hard rock, proggy metal, spacey prog, cosmic funk, a ballad, and almost omnipresent synthesisers. Some bits are reminiscent of some Magical Power Mako circa ‘Jump’ [see below]. The production is excellent. They also released a number of rare EP’s - ‘Fantastic Mirror’ [1975], ‘The Infinite Universe Of Our Mind’ (a promo release) [1975] and ‘Days In The Past’ [1975]. The first album has been reissued on CD by Coca/Nippon Columbia; the next 3 by Toshiba EMI [possibly out of print]. By Chris McLean

Debut album by this '70's Japanese heavy progressive rock band. One of the best Japanese seventies progressive rock albums we've heard with guitars, synth keyboards and violins trading licks whilst the rhythm section keeps the beat kicking in the best Zeppelin or Purple tradition. A mixture of progressive music and heavy rock that really Kicks butt.Great guitar work! Freak Emporium

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