Beautify Junkyards – Cosmorama (Ghost Box)

Lisbon’s Beautify Junkyards have brought a dangerously dreamlike world to life on Cosmorama, their inviting new record for Ghost Box

Cosmorama finds Lisbon’s Beautify Junkyards making another outernational pilgrimage deep into Ghost Box territory. If The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards was a midsummer night’s haunting, their follow-up is a tumble down the rabbit hole into a dream world that the unwary listener may not wake up from. There’s much in the way of feelings, ideas and imagery to be unpacked through multiple listens and since the record’s tendrils reach out with a tight grip, there will be plenty of time to do so. The space that Cosmorama occupies might be thought of as a crossroads where Wild Strawberries meets Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, with bandleader João Branco Kyron an alert guide, like Arthur Machen with a stack of Gilberto Gil records under his arm.

“Dupla Exposição” is what Alice finds there. The subtle to and fro of the percussion lulls, while nature’s veil is slowly peeled back by wind and voice. Releasing positive vibes like air from a tyre, “Reverie” would make a fine companion to a Pastels and Tenniscoats jam, whereas “The Sphinx” opens the gates of perception a crack to out-Flaming-Lips Wayne Coyne and co. “The Collector” takes on a more sinister guise, whispering secrets of life and death in the listener’s ear – another invitation from Beautify Junkyards that cannot be denied. The title track is then as sunlight penetrating the huddled together trees of an ancient forest, providing a moment of release before “Zodiak Club” opens into a miniature beathead suite, revealing Middle Eastern roots and a stop-motion mechanical rhythm. But it’s with “Deep Green” that Cosmorama spreads its wings and soars above the dream, with guest Allison Brice (of Lake Ruth) an exquisite addition to the Beautify Junkyards ensemble. “Deep Green” is surely a sun-coming-up-on-the-longest-of-nights Balearic anthem in the making, the last rush falling back into nature as new horizons beckon.