ALBUM REVIEW: Mos/Fet – Orgöne

Mos/Fet is the double album debut from Renne’s ORGÖNE. This genre-blending quintet are a throwback act who harness the acid-laced rock of the early seventies to create swirling psychedelic music, intermingled with vintage fuzz tones and surreal synthesisers. In their sound and in their image, ORGÖNE exude a rare authenticity. Their appropriation of early progressive rock tropes is deeply affectionate and no soulless affectation. Mos/Fet is a space rock odyssey, consisting of loosely assembled suites arranged by theme. Over an eighty-minute running time, ORGÖNE traverse space race tragedies and ancient mythologies, fleshed out with lengthy instrumental passages and intense plateaus. More playful than profound, this retro French outfit promise to deliver prog by the pound.

Musically speaking, ORGÖNE have both feet firmly planted in the past. They reimagine the whimsical, virtuosic musicianship of progressive rock, and play it with the fuzzy timbre of desert rock. Where do you even begin to unpack the assortment of sounds and imagery that ORGÖNE play with? Mos/Fet is a kaleidoscope of visions and themes, which places science-fiction side-by-side with mythology, pan-African spirituality, progressive 70s music, Egyptology, and the Soviet space program. This kitchen-sink approach to imagery might seem absurd, but ORGÖNE deliver it (mostly) straight-faced.

The double-album is bookended by two lengthy space rock suites, Erstes Ritual and Astral Fancy, which demonstrate the group’s aptitude for long form and (we suspect) semi-improvised song-writing. The intermediary tracks are, by contrast, more focussed. Soviet Hot Dog (Le Tombeau de Laïka) is an epitaph piece for the first animal to orbit the earth, though you’d never have guessed it: creepy, sparse and sinister at points, lead vocalist Olga Rostropovitch is tonally dextrous and uses every inch of her impressive range.

Mothership Egypt stands out as one of the heavier moments in the album, channelling KYUSS and SLEEP as they go. Multi-instrumentalist Tom Angelo brings an array of synthesised textures and unconventional instruments to keep things interesting in the album’s sprawling passages – listen closely, and you’ll hear the mandolin and clarinet making untimely appearances. ORGÖNE are vibrant and energetic musicians, able to make their protracted pieces entertaining at every turn.

ORGÖNE operate on that slender boundary between vintage appeal and genuine novelty. You’ll hear JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, HAWKWIND, MAGMA and TANGERINE DREAM in their melange, but you can also discern the playful heaviness of MELVINS and SONIC YOUTH too. On paper this concoction of disparate influences shouldn’t work, but it does. This is theatrical space rock realised on a grand scale, and delivered with the utmost conviction. As Mos/Fet unfolds, ORGÖNE take you on a whirlwind tour of the progressive music of yesteryear: the experience is bewildering and surreal, but thoroughly enjoyable too.

Rating: 8/10

Mos/Fet is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds.

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