MMOSS
Only Children

I was eagerly waiting for the second album from the New Hampshire Americans, MMOSS, who with their previous “I” created one of the most successful frescoes of (almost) 360° psychedelia, and I must say that for once the wait was not in vain. 

Released at the photo finish of 2012, where it would have landed straight among the top 5 albums of the year, “Only Children” confirms the band as one of the best psych groups around. Thanks to an undisguised love for late '60s England, both the London of the UFO Club and the moors of Donovan & Co., all finally aided by a conscious reflection on the psych affairs at home during the same period.
An almost perfect circle, with tracks having a more appropriate length compared to the past, alternating with psych-pop sketches or flashes; all seasoned with the band's trademark, the transverse flute. Used with obviously melodic taste and never indulgently, it often plays the role of the organ or doubles it in the background.

Thanks to this masterful balance, pieces like “Hands” or “Another Day” refer to the post-Revolver Beatles without becoming cloying, and more complex musings, like the opening “Spoiled Sun”, never lose intensity in their cyclical unfolding.
There are two best moments: the 10 minutes of the instrumental “War Sux”, with a hypnotic kraut-like progression, led by flute, organ, and guitar, taking turns to steal the scene; the 8 minutes of “Wander”, which starts like a piece by H.P. Lovecraft, solemn and dominated by the organ, then speeds up and takes a highway almost Hawkwind-like, shooting straight into the cosmos.

A mandatory pick-up for lovers of the lesser-known side of their own brain.