Seid
Among the Monster Flowers Again

4... 3... 2... 1... Go!
Welcome aboard the Seid space spaceship, we inform the esteemed psychonauts that the journey will last 49 minutes and the scheduled stops will be 10.
We have just departed from Trondheim (Norway) headed for space, Commander Jürgen Kosmos wishes you a good journey... bzzzt... krzzzzz... (static discharges)...

We are not talking about a Scandinavian prog metal album, don't worry! Although Norwegian, our guys are not going around burning churches or worshiping Thor. Their music is an acid-psychedelic blend from the early '70s, that never falls into easy quoting, or worse, blatant plagiarism.
Like their fellow countrymen Motorpsycho, Seid compose music with an eye on the past, but with their feet firmly planted in the present, resulting as current as they are profoundly "old."

The album is a perfect example of retro-futurist collage, composed of dizzying ups and downs, screeching rhythms, sudden changes, characteristics that would lead one to define it as "progressive." But no 15-minute suites, in fact, only one track reaches 8 minutes.
Right from the instrumental intro, we understand why the album's artwork references the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms; Fire Song starts with a sustained riff (Motorpsycho period Blissard) to which a sitar(!?) is even added. Jellyfish is the album's boldest sound experiment, with its duet between mellotron (always present) and clarinet, which unfolds into an oriental-tinged finale.
From here on, only masterpieces: the monumental 5/4, hypnotic, evocative, and glacial, thanks to its keyboard arrangement; Lois Loona and The Tale of the King on the Hill, both successful crossbreeds between Syd Barrett-style acid folk, sepulchral tones like those of Black Sabbath, and Hawkwind-style gallops. Finally, Red Planet brings back the more '60s Motorpsycho sound, with continuously looping keyboards, while Sleep is a long trip with a spine-chilling final crescendo. Before landing, the initial theme is revisited by the title track, complete with Beatles-like trumpets.

As a colored gentleman used to say years ago, "Space is the place!"