Ozric Tentacles
Strangeitude

A world apart, that's all. For those unfamiliar with them, this is their third album (and also their masterpiece, in my opinion), excluding the early demotapes later exhumed in Afterswish, a double album containing the best of their very first material.

Formed in 1984 at the Glastonbury Festival thanks to the eclectic guitarist Ed Wynne and drummer Nick van Gelder (later with Jamiroquai), the band underwent several changes as, for a time, they were a "commune" and played each night with different line-ups. Here, in their best formation of just 5 members, they deliver an album that borders on perfection even though it is rightly considered by many their least experimental. In the sound of the Ozrics, the absence of vocals has always been a feature, making the album even more mysterious and fascinating...

It kicks off with "White Rhino Tea" and immediately reveals the band's spatial and mental sounds that drag you into increasingly concentric and hypnotic spirals of dub-spacerock (and let's go with neologisms!!), continuing with "Sploosh," a true psychedelic mantra that in that year, 1991, was the hit at free raves in England and beyond. "Saucers" relaxes you after so many sounds that are incredibly blended and interlocked together.

Note the simply outstanding performance by the drummer (no longer Nick van Gelder but Merv Peplar), who behind the skins is so precise, fast, and creative that he seems like a drum machine, although all the drum parts are played. The album continues relentlessly to unravel all the myriad of sounds that the Ozrics are capable of creating, helped in giving that prog touch to everything by the truly diverse flutes of all kinds by frontman Jon Egan.

The album closes with one of their live classics, highlighting how an experience of their concert live can't be forgotten. Strongly recommended listening under the effect of cannabinoids...
Unique and timeless... years ago at Beach Bum, they played for three straight hours on the beach (playing just 8 pieces!!!) with indescribable power... one of the best concerts of my life...
If you don't know them, please try listening to them!