Biography
2015 - The new Red Cosmos album Dreaming In Unison is now available as a free download from:
https://redcosmos.bandcamp.com/
Based in York (UK) Red Cosmos is the solo project of Kim Tortoise. Kim was previously a member of Putney-based The Gods Themselves with Art Moran. Their output (on cassette) included a shoegaze anthem based on Petronius’ Satyricon, a tribute to Lou Macari played on a Casio ToneBank, and a lopsided dance track about the Hanger Lane Gyratory System. International acclaim did not beckon.
In 2009, Kim Tortoise, now based in York, released his first tracks as Red Cosmos. The Chicken Song consisted of looped samples of Kim Tortoise Junior and friends talking about chickens, backed by a playful electronic beat. This set the mould for most of Kim's early output. Son of Morris, a cut-and-paste shoegaze number (featuring vocals by Art Moran) changed direction somewhat and garnered airplay on WFMU and Dandelion Radio, reaching number 45 on the latter's Festive Fifty countdown. A prolific output in demo mode ensued, and a Red Cosmos re-mix cum mash-up of the Gwilly Edmondez sound-poem Balls Roll Everywhere was described as "possibly one of the daftest tunes I've ever played" by Andrew Morrison (Dandelion Radio).
In 2012, Red Cosmos released his first proper album There And Back as a free download via Bandcamp. The track I Am The Local DJ, featuring what one blog described as "inadvisable sampler action" reached Number 16 in the Dandelion Radio Festive 50, while The Song Has Changed was voted Festive 51 Number One by the listeners of Zaph Mann’s In Memory of John Peel radio show. St Alban’s Colour Explosion, possibly the only song ever to namecheck both Jason Crest’s demonic psych track Black Mass and 80's pop duo Pepsi and Shirley, found a home on Stuart Maconie’s Freakier Zone on 6Music.
The album There and Back was subsequently hosted by the Moscow-based Clinical Archives, a netlabel showcasing” eclectic and illogical” music.
In 2013/14 Kim Tortoise released two novelty smurfcore tracks under the name Cyclic Freeload Unit (as Bling Porpoise) and a further track tagged as "post-abysmal kidstep" under the name Bourbon Somersault The Third.
In January 2015, Red Cosmos released a video for the song I Decided To Love You, animated by the Providence-based singer/cellist/animator Orion Rigel Dommisse. In the words of Kim Tortoise: "I have finally entered the sacred world of sublime art and creative genius, albeit somebody else’s"
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