Progressive Rock Reviews
Progressive Rock Reviews
Waterfall Cities Ozric Tentacles |
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Ozric Tentacles are
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Then gradually the keyboards
take over and all the time the sounds are still building up until
we reach the crescendo with the guitars coming back for some breathtaking
work. The the music mellows slightly, but the rhythm carries on throughout
and then there's more keyboards which have a fairly spacey and atmospheric
sound to them. This is followed by a change in direction with some
excellent keyboard sequences coming in and then this gradually builds
up to the keyboards being the dominant feature and then the track
fades away. Ozric Tentacles Website: http://www.ozrics.com |
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Ozric's are : ED - Guitars,
Synths, Samps Tracks: 1. Pyramidion
(6.16) 'Pyramidion' is a 5 track mini CD with 1 studio track and 4 tracks being recorded live during the Hidden Step tour 2000 at the Sheffield Boardwalk. The opening and title track 'Pyramidion' is in true Ozrics style, the bass and drums forming a hypnotic rhythm with swirling spacey sounding keyboards and some great guitar. The next four live tracks come from the Ozric previous two albums namely 'Waterfall Cities' and 'Hidden Step' and this shows that the Ozrics can perform just as wonderful on stage. The sound quality is superb and I have to say if there wasn't a bit of crowd participation in-between tracks you wouldn't know that these tracks were live. Now you may wonder if it is worth buying this album considering that there's only one new track on here. For me, I would say, yes, I don't think any true Ozric would want to be without any of their albums and miss out on hearing them live and if you haven't heard anything by the Ozrics before then this is a good album to start with as it is not going to cost to much being an MCD. Highly Recommended!!!
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The Ozric Tentacles lineup: ED - Guitars,
Synths, Samps, Spins The Tracks The first track 'Holohedron' starts with some atmospheric spacey sounds, very much so in Gong style, then in comes the guitar and this is very much in the style of Steve Hillage, then the sounds build up. I must say I just love the way the Ozric's do this, the bass and drums are such a driving force in their music. The track then switches between a driving space rock sound and more atmospheric sounds and there's quite a bit of middle eastern influences in there too. 'The Hidden Step' starts with some nice atmospheric keyboards, the bass and drums come in fairly low key at first then gradually build. After a while the music fades away, and then changes direction, quite atmospheric then some heavy guitar comes in, but this is in the background at first, there still quite a lot of atmospheric sounds going on, then this all dies to leave a low key bass and drums sound. In comes some swirling guitar and keyboards sounds. Excellent guitar work from Ed once again. The track then builds, then lulls to more atmospheric sounds, gradually dying away, but you can still hear this driving bass in the background, then back come the drums and more atmospheric keys and then after a short wile the music fades away. Track 3 is 'Ashlandi Bol', there a re lots of Middle Eastern sounding keys, and then in come the drums and bass, and then an acoustic guitar, there some great flute and guitar work here,and all the time there a heavy middle eastern influence, this carries on for quite a while before there's a change in direction, this is a short passage of atmospheric sounds before the music returns back to the middle eastern flavour, this also is fairly short before going more atmospheric with sound sampled voices come in, the track then builds, still with the heavy middle eastern influence. The guitar work now has changed to electric, and after a short while the track ends. 'Aramanu', this is another track with a heavy middle eastern influence, there's a much slower pace to this track, lots of atmospheric sounds, sampled voices, sheep sounds, and crowd sounds. The track then builds with bass, drums and keys and then in come some more sampled voices, etc., the track then builds with some wonderful atmospheric keys, the sounds then die away to more sampled voices, etc., then returns to the beat as we had previously with some more atmospheric keys and then fades away. The next track 'Pixel Dream' starts with a deep bass synth sound and then in comes the guitar, then the Bass and drum rhythmstarts and this reminds me a lot of Gong. Once again Ed's guitar work is simply stunning, but once again there is quite a lot of Steve Hillage influence here. Infact I would have to say this track so far has quite alot of Gong/Steve Hillage influence to it. Now the drums and bass are gradually building, but then fade way, and instantly there's a change in direction to more atmospheric sounds from the keyboards, back come the driving bass and the guitar work is now completely different, it's more in a funky style now, then its more atmospheric sounds that gradually fade away. Track 6, 'Tight Spin' starts with some atmospheric keyboards and guitar and start to gradually build, in come the bass and drums, one again fairly low key, while the keyboard sounds swirl around, this then dies to more atmospheric sounds. Back come the bass and drums, more swirling keyboards sounds then after a while the guitar comes in fairly low key, the sounds here are oth hypnotic and atmospheric, this carries on for a while then fades to just atmospheric sounds. When the rhythm returns the music starts to build with keys and then in comes an acoustic guitar and this gradually becomes more prominent. From this point the track takes on more of a middle eastern flavour to it, with the drums and keyboards following suite. Then its back to more atmospheric keys, then everything dies leaving just atmospheric keys that gradually fade away. The last track ' Ta Khut' is a fairly short track with lots of atmospheric sounds and more sampled middle eastern sounds, camel train perhaps? There's some great flute and then in comes some acoustic guitar. Bass and drums have now entered and there's still al lot of middle eastern influence, there's some atmospheric keys and swirling keys over the top then the music just fades away. Once again, another superb release from the Ozrics!!! Highly Recommended!!! |