- Henge are psychedelic rockers for the Bangface generation. They're interplanetary showmen with silly appeal, catchy music and a growing fan base that stems from a ravey warehouse event series in Manchester called Space Cassette. Henge consists of a "peace keeping robot" called Talos 4000, a frontman who wears a plasma globe as a headdress, a green frog-squid hybrid on drums and a white-robed alien on keyboard. The troupe's only human is Kent Paxman, Henge's "synthesis technician/shaman." They're an endearing live act and a festival favourite in the North of England, where they've brought their galactic antics to events like Bluedot, Kendal Calling and Beat-Herder. Cosmic Dross lands on Love Love Records, a label that usually deals with the harder, faster and weirder side of dance music. Despite predominantly being a rock record, Cosmic Dross fits Love Love like an outlandish glove.
"Unit Of Power" is the EP's singalong. It opens with groaning drones and snatches of a garbled transmission before the drums and cosmic sounds kick in. The band work mood and pace changes into their tracks, and this one gets very funky in the middle (not that you would guess from the opening). "Humans" introduces us to Henge's conceptual universe through frontman Zpor's spoken dialogue. It's accompanied by unpredictable music that best captures the group's charming side.
"Venusian Apocalypse" takes a darker route: Zpor raps, the electronics sound riled and things break down furiously at the end. "Jupiter's Wild Ride" is an invitation to rave, a mental instrumental that gives the Pulp Fiction theme song a spacey facelift, while "Puck Funk" ends on a messy tear-out. See Henge live for the full effect.
TracklistA1 Unit Of Power
A2 Humans
B1 Venusian Apocalypse
B2 Jupiter's Wild Ride
B3 Puck Funk