Kosmetika – Luxury (Blue Vinyl)

Spoilsport Records are stoked to announce the third LP ‘Luxury’ from local new-wave pop stalwarts Kosmetika.

Following their impressive DIY home-recorded effort in their sophomore album ‘Illustration’, Kosmetika turn to a more studio focused record featuring engineering from Erik Scerba. They also depart from the more duo focused sounds, to a band heavy approach featuring all five members inputing vocals, song ideas and creating a diverse and detailed 10 tracks channeling a combination of their two previous releases.

‘Pictures Are Gone’ is our first taste of a more collaborative endeavour from Kosmetika, sitting somewhere between the 80’s melancholic new-wave of the last record and some of the faster paced pop songs yet to come on ‘Luxury’. The track settles into a psych-tinged shoegaze slow burner, featuring Eno-like melodic bass lines and washed out distorted guitars. It features Veeka Nazarova, the sole vocalist of ‘Illustration’, and maintains her usual new-wave tinged pop, also found in album hits ‘Automobile’ and ‘Halp’.

The record manages to shift from full throttle guitar pop with Michael Ellis lead tracks ‘Fish’ and ‘Make It Good’, to the punk leaning Reward Risk headed by Jake Suriano (Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice/Kitchen People). Also heading into more Krautrock territory, ‘Silver Streak’ and ‘Kosmetika Strikes Back’ lead by Dom Moore (Eggy) and James Lynch (Delivery) respectively, show off the bands knack for steadily driven guitar tracks with satisfying moments of release.

Luxury is a record with so many influences and input that still manages to avoid any confusion in it’s ultimate goal, and comes together as an important collaborative marker in Kosmetika’s increasingly impressive discography.