Cassette
Label: Distant Bloom
Before their dissolution a few years ago, Solid Waste were the cosmic drifters of a small-but-fertile experimental scene in Saint Louis, Missouri. A trio comprised of Nate Bethel, Josh Kahl, and Mario Martinez, the band forged a unique sound sitting comfortably at the nexus of several musical movements spread across time and place: the German kosmiche sound in the 1970s, the Japanese environmental music of the 1980s, and the crystalline tones of American new age in the 1980s and 1990s.
Recorded shortly before their disbandment, "City of The Cosmos" largely eschews the motorik pulse of "Visions", the band's sole full-length LP, in favor of a more airy and expansive atmosphere. Apart from the gentle mechanized groove of "Friends of the Earth", these tracks are content to float dreamily among the clouds hovering above the titular city. Simultaneously sprightly and melancholy, vaporous and tangible, "City of the Cosmos" is an evocative farewell from Solid Waste.