Von Lmo
Cosmic Interception

Anyone who doesn't believe in extraterrestrials hasn't met Von Lmo yet (pronounced Von Elmo, for Earthlings). He himself claims to have been born "in the black light dimension" in 1924, and not as some mischievously report in Brooklyn in 1954 with the unlikely name of Frankie Cavallo. A child prodigy on the drums, he travels with his spaceship in the solar system where one day, due to technical failure, he lands on Saturn. Here he meets Sun Ra (who was visiting relatives) who teaches him music theory and some of his secrets and of whom he becomes a big fan. It's known that strange types are encountered on Saturn, so our guy ends up befriending a music student named Juno Saturn who, among other things, talks to him about the planet Strazar. So Von Lmo and his friend often travel to this planet where they settle and live for a few hundred years.

Occasionally during the seventies, Von Lmo visits planet Earth where he tries to settle to spread his music among humans, which music was meant to prepare human beings for potential extraterrestrial life. He works in New York with a myriad of bands with amusing names and characters: in the Funeral Of Art with organist Otto Von Ruggins around 1970, in the Pumpo with guitarist Rudolph Grey from 1972 to 1974, in Why You...Murder Me?, a free improvisation duo with Grey; in Kongress with Von Ruggins again from 1976 to 1978; finally in Red Transistor, again with Grey, tinkering on the guitar and organ.

Thrown out and rightly rejected by many venues in the big apple, he is finally welcomed at Max's Kansas City, right where artists like Patty Smith and Talking Heads had performed, and where he becomes a protagonist of the no-wave season, with accompanying destruction of instruments on stage and wholesome reciprocal violence among the band members. Unsurprisingly, the last concert before the venue's failure was his. In the incredulity and incomprehension of the listeners, Von Lmo himself thinks of defining his music by explaining it in a more understandable verbal logical scheme for humans, he calls it: "super space-age heavymetal dance rock", clear, no?! Music that at its most eccentric consisted of avant-garde jams with super distorted guitars that lasted for hours and were meant to open and expand the human mind to put it in touch with the alien world.

After recording the album "Future Languages" in 1981, it is said that not satisfied with the result, but especially with the cover portraying him without his famous wig, he started destroying all the copies. After these adventures, Von Lmo was called back to the planet Strazar. Officially out of the scene due to problems with alcohol, drugs, and abuse of all kinds, in reality, our hero returned to his planet to solve an ecological disaster.

With the mission accomplished, he returns to Earth in '91, unchanged, and finally records his masterpiece "Cosmic Interception" in '94, 8 songs for 55 minutes, with Juno Saturn on sax, his other old friend Otto Von Ruggins on keyboards, Bobby Ryan on drums, and Craig Coffin on bass. A record that leverages cyberpunk with a Blade Runner setting. He says in the liner notes: "Having solved the problems on Strazar, VON LMO has returned to Earth. Through the miracle of suspended animation and supertuminic space travel he has grown younger and stronger and is once again creating alternate realities in sounds and visions here on Earth. VON LMO is determined to help you ADVANCE YOURSELF!"

It begins immediately with the pounding title track with a tracked rhythm and deep-throated metallic voice obsessively repeating "we transmit, you intercept", recalling Suicide for the sense of oppression and Hawkwind for cosmic dilation. "Radio World" is an apocalyptic rhythm & blues with its compact and relentless rhythm, vicious singing, and sax howling like a siren. With "Leave Your Body" things start to get serious, alongside the usual tank-like rhythm and sax raids, the guitar draws constellations, reminiscent of the never too-praised Helios Creed. The pompousness of "Inside Shadowland" has something sinister that creates a thriller atmosphere. "Ultraviolet Light" opens with acidic synth miasmas and then becomes a rockabilly dance with neurotic sax and guitar unleashing fiery solos. It continues with "Be Yourself" which comes directly from space and hammers an insane railway rhythm for six minutes, with the usual husky and alien singing, and the exhausting saxophone spreading like the background noise from the Big-Bang. The eight minutes of "Shake, Rattle & Roll" are devastating, it sounds like hearing Sun Ra play Chrome and vice versa, with cacophonous, noise interludes, displacing guitar incursions, and wicked singing. The album ends with the relatively more accessible "This Is Pop Rock," which is their personal take on pop-rock, try to imagine that.

The influence of Chrome is evident, especially in guitar digressions and in creating music for robots, cold, industrial, without redemption. The attitude and core of this music are Sun Ra's experiments. The iconoclastic violence and noise remind of MC5 and Blue Cheer, although overall the ironic atmosphere makes them somewhat like Gong playing heavy metal.

This record, with its gleeful irreverence, non-trivial experimentation, and grotesque avant-garde, represents a masterpiece of the nineties. Although this is the "official" version, in reality, it is a long subliminal message about the existence of aliens and the allure of extraterrestrial life.