Soon after Bruce Cohen completed his album Five BC, he devised how he would approach his follow-up, Six BC. The starting point was combining a Yamaha Reface YC Organ with a Reface CS Synth creating sounds Cohen found surprising, organic and exciting. By using both boards, sometimes at the same time, or with overdubbing, it allowed for every track to utilize both keyboards. Cohen’s aim was to see how far he could push the two keyboards into one big spacious ethereal sound. He succeeded in spades, as the album melds ambient, funk, grooves, experimental, and percussion aplenty.
The album starts with Enoesque funk on Under The Nova, followed by the slow, dark groove trading synth and organ sounds on A Simple Step. The next track is Bruce’s opus in the Miles Davis inspired Rated Are, a riot of Afro-Latin percussion with sounds swirling in-and-out producing electronic mayhem.
Sunrise Over The Moon, and Which Is Which both sprout from Cohen’s ambient roots. The latter track leaving the listener to determine which is the organ, and which is the synth.
Cohen successfully gets his groove on with his signature EDM style on Prelude For Oodaka and Dance Of Mogera, while Moove adds some ambient funk.
Mr. Harrison, is a homage to Cohen’s favorite Beatle with synths and organ swirling around to produce a unique mysterious Eastern feel.
The album concludes with a percussive explosion on Fooled Who, a tribute to The Who, another of Cohen’s all time favorite bands, with pounding drums and bleeping synths building on top of each other to form a molten slab of sheer sound.
Six BC is the latest episode of Cohen’s signature style electronic excursions, so put on your headphones, close your eyes, and enjoy the ten track extraordinary sound journey.
∎ Tarock Music, April 20, 2020
