From new age music the best know example is of course Gandalf – which also is a well-known Finish death-metal band…

Previously, back in the days of physical CDs and real record shops, this was not a big problems since Gandalf the death metal band would be duly filed under “Death Metal” while “our” Gandalf would be in the new age music/adult contemporary/easy listening department. But in the world of mp3 shops, there’s not much filing and indexing. When you make an unspecified search, like most people do, you get all artists with that name. In many digital music outlets, if you search for “Gandalf” you get a sweet mix of both death metal and new age music – often in the same sample playlist.

This is now also the case with Michael Holm and Kristian Schultze’s group Cusco – one of the finest new age music groups ever. When I searched for Cusco recently I was happy to see that a new album, or EP, was available. Wohoo!

But, on second thoughts, wasn’t Hang Loose a strange Cusco title? And My Balls My World was also a somewhat bizarre song name by this group – which usually are more like Ariadne, White Buffalo or The Nine Muses. So I started listening to the EP, just not knowing what to expect. But the first deep synth pad on the title track got me wondering – this just might be the real thing, a new Cusco release! But after some time I realized that this was not my Cusco – this was some other band with the same name!

Hang Loose is a chill out EP released on Firebird records. Here is a presentation of the new Cusco (the EP as released in May last year).

Hang Loose is Mike Smile’s first album in a new era of party tunes. Anyone who knows Mike knows that he is musically diverse. It is not only house and techno… So he developed his newly launched chillout-project where he is under the name of „Cusco“ and makes with his debut on Firebird Rec. named “Hang Loose EP” the first great step! Seven beautiful tracks, don’t miss it. Check out www.myspace.com/firebirdrecords or http://www.myspace.com/djmikesmile 

And yes, don’t get me wrong; Hang loose is great album, with a chilled rhythm, a nice club atmosphere and deep bass. I very much like the second track, the dreamy Peace for the world and the jazz elements on the last track Two Mexicanos.

But it is not Cusco! Or is it?

Sample Hang Loose here – and the “real” Cusco here.