Time for lift off! Irish electronic duo, i am the cosmos, has launched their latest single, “letting it go,” and might as well be extra terrestrials taking us on a tour through outer space.
i am the cosmos Blasts Off!
With a snappy beat and jumpy synth, “letting it go” releases a sparky energy. The clapping, cluby rhythm of the synth is paired with distant, worrisome, static-sounding vocals, taking on an electronic and techno undertone.
Hi-hat beats enter persistently, like a countdown, surging into a vacuum-like sound, or erupting into a gas, then dissipating, fusing out into one lingering tone. A strobe light of sound all on its own, it is hard to image how “letting it go” could be remixed by Lumigraph as the final bonus song for the single.
As the single’s primary B side track, “tactiturning on you,” tunes in, synth chords chime, reminding me of piano playing as a child — playing the notes precisely and just right. A cloudy, glistening effect shimmers above the synth, like a Rainbow Brite sequence; or something else fantastical like The NeverEnding Story.
Then the percussion usurps with a hip-hop beat and an urban melody. Within this techno cadence, stumbling synth chords slide into the rhythmic pattern in synchronicity.The sounds i am the cosmos makes are cosmic: otherworldly and not at all human.
“letting it go (lumigraph remix)” has an intricate downbeat with a clap above. A little spacier than the former “letting it go,” the vocals sound even further away — another light year deeper in space. Still, “letting it go” and this version do have a robotic energy and a digital synergy.
Striking minor chords over the melancholy melody from the synth, Lumigraph’s remix of “letting it go” is masked in a manic madness. This unnerving feeling is in total opposition of “tactiturning on you,” yet i am the cosmos achieves the same level of uncanniness.
Beyond the similarities of sounds to an ’80s movie or a ’90s video game, i am the cosmos has a sound that is something yet to be discovered — yet to even set foot on this earth.
