AMBIENT/TRANCE/TECHNO, etc:
WILLIAM ORBIT: Hello Waveforms CD
You never know what to expect with a lot of these electronic dance-ambient-techno, etc top producers and DJ's and musicians - could be an album that's half rap, half electronic or anything. That this guy comes with more promise than most, makes me want to dive in and find out.
The opening track is a gorgeous six minutes of instrumental electronic ambience that sort of turns in a truly heartfelt, immaculately atmospheric, exquisitely melodic and positively inspirational slice of chilled-out downtempo bliss, with soaring synths, cruising guitar, cascading rhythms and wondrous soundscapes, deep bass and chunky beats - all arranged to produce a magical opening track of pure ambient heaven. Next up is a three minute variation on some classical piece that he's prone to doing and it flows along neatly enough, exuding strings and cascading synths to what you'd call "delightful" degree. The near five minute 'Surfin' is another slice of downtempo ambience, complete with strummed acoustic guitar, cascading synths, lilting electric piano, soaring lead synth melodies, string backdrops and a positively Knopfler-esque lead guitar being the mirror of restraint, again all quite simple, atmospheric and melodic. The five minute 'You Know Too Much About Flying Saucers' is more decelerated atmospheric ambient synths dominated work, again with strings, lilting guitar, deep bass throbs, chunky electronic drums and a slow but purposeful approach as it glides towards the stars. 'Spiral' is the first song and the album and sounds like an electronic version of pop act The Sugarbabes - which is just as well, 'coz it's them that's doing the vocals - as it glides and slides its way to atmospheric electro-pop bliss. The five minute 'Who Owns The Octupus' is a chunky slice of solid ambience with beefy mid-paced beats, layers of synths and guitars, plus wordless female vocals all providing a truly awesome slice of tungsten-strength melodic ambience and the best track on the album so far - superb!! The four minute 'Bubble Universe' features more exquisite heavenly female vocals, this time almost buried in the mix as another gorgeous sea of blissful synths and downtempo rhythms unfolds to gorgeous extent, with so many subtleties and nuances along the way as guitars, synths, tables, deep bass and angelic vocals all combine on another gem of a track. With four similarly exquisite instrumental pieces to finish, this is as blissful an example of easily accessible, melodic ambience as it gets, and providing you want something that's easy on the ear, relaxed, substantial and repeat playable, then this is one your coffee table will be proud to support.
V/A: Digital Oracle Highway CD
Apart from Solar Fields I've never hard of any of the other 8 acts on this CD, but that really doesn't matter because when you've got an album as addictive and insistent as this, you couldn't give a stuff who's playing it. That it is an album full of powerful but atmospheric rhythmic cohesion that will prove irresistible to the feet - the whole body, come to that - and of melodies that soar and drive providing the icing on the cake, is a mark of just how good this is. Every track has that trance feel to it while being more akin to classic instrumental house, or some stunningly strong hybrid of the two. Using rhythms and beats that are more core percussive and, as a result, sound one heck of a lot stronger, rhythms that surge forward in multi-layers of beats and electronics, thunderous and full of feeling, with all manner of soundscapes, melodies and effects flying and soaring on top, the whole thing takes on quite a heavy sound but manages to lift off to perfection with every track. If you like your electronics on the solid rhythmic side, with forceful percussive elements, and tracks that simply roar into the distance, all without the clichés of trance, then this is most certainly up your alley.
V/A: Shanti Bar DBLCD
"A fine selection of psychedelic and electronic chill-out", it says on the cover and, once you've heard the 2 CD's, you'd pretty well agree with that. With ambient legends such as Saafi Brothers, Fresh Moods, Sushi Club alongside lots of lesser known names, the quality of the music does not deteriorate for a second, as a solid slice of ambient dub, laid-back downtempo grooves and pure ambient chill-out rises up and takes you along in its wake. From chunky rhythms through soaring seas of synths to sky-high melodies and glorious atmospheres, this is a voyage of discovery that is positively mesmerising every time you take it.
V/A: Spaceships Of The Imagination Vol 2 CD
Forget who's on here - it doesn't matter - the crucial thing here is the flow of the album and that' just fantastic. You start with six minutes of full-sounding blissful, multi-textured electronic ambience with synths, space synths, wordless heavenly choral, and gorgeous electronic textures, all moving forward and rising up to glorious heights before the next track comes along in a hail of throbbing synths and vocal samples as this phased percussive ambient dub rhythm swoops from speaker to speaker above the throbbing bass, tables are added, the electronic drums start to cruise and assorted melodies are overlaid from synths and guitars as the whole thing surges forth, taking you with its heady mix of rhythms and soundscapes. This lasts six and a half minutes then the next track is introduced with space synth squalls, chunky downtempo electro-percussive beats, spiralling space synths cascading down as the whole thing takes on a solid ambient dub undercurrent and mixes it with exotic Eastern-esque elements, sounding more like a Moroccan Eat Static and just superb for eight minutes of downtempo bliss. This sort of east-meets-west flavour of rhythms, soundscapes and melodies is carried on throughout the album and it stands ultimately as a seriously fine amalgam of the two cultures wrapped in an ambient disguise.
CANTERBURY/FUSION:
SOFT MACHINE: Grides CD+DVD
Soft Machine were one of first and one of the greatest jazz/rock bands of all time. 'Grides' presents the most famous version of the band (Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt) recorded live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on October 25, 1970, in a high-quality, previously unreleased recording, just a few months after the release of 'Third' and at the peak of their popularity. It showcases them in transition between releases, with the band performing 3 of the four works from 'Third', as well as some of the earliest recordings of material from the upcomming Fourth, including some very different arrangements to what would eventually end up on that release. In addition, it features the earliest recording of Elton's 'Neo-Caliban Grides', which has a fairly lengthy composed section that was never heard again. Also included in this set is the first-ever DVD release by Soft Machine! It was recorded at the TV studios of Radio Bremen on March 23, 1971, but is a completely different performance from the 'Virtually' album. This was the band's final European tour with Robert Wyatt and is a 20 minute set, professionally recorded by a multi-camera crew. The audio and video quality is excellent for the time period (over 35 years old now!), as we worked from the original videotape master in the archives of Radio Bremen.
SOFT MACHINE LEGACY: New Morning - The Paris Concert DVD
The last concert from the late Elton Dean, member of THE classic Soft Machine quartet of the seventies, before his untimely passing a few months ago. Together with fellow Soft Machinists Hugh Hopper, John Etheridge & John Marshall, they turn in a near two hour concert performance from Paris in 2005. Across 10 great tracks, including 'Kings And Queens', this is both a powerful and poignant slice of Canterbury fusion with playing that's faultless and full of feeling.
EURO-ROCK/CONTEMPORARY:
CLUSTER: Cluster '71 CD
The art of how careful remastering can turn a pig's ear into a positive delight on what is now a quite brilliant album. There are no track titles, just the times of the 3 tracks. There are no tunes, melodies or recognisable rhythms. The improved sound pulsates, drones, whines and soars its way through layered electronics and shifting, phased, organic, powerful and carefully textured music throughout the opening 15 min track, the result being a spacious and spacey quality not previously witnessed with a massive, bubbling cauldron of electronics at the heart, like an inst electronic version of Faust on a good day. The 7 min track 2 starts on a quiet wave of electronic layers of which the percussive and phased electronic layers shudder and soar in a gigantic, ever-intensifying, ever-expanding tidal wave of electronic sound. Finally, the 21 min track 3 starts quietly, in the vein of the first 2 Kraftwerk albums with more of the similar style electronics that build, spread out, intensify, layer and beyond, with a feel akin to T. Dream's 'Zeit' opus. At the 5 min point, the electronics and percussives become very phased, like Neu's 'E.Musik' track decelerated, to jaw-dropping effect as the soundscapes travel onwards.. By 10 mins, it's an ebbing/flowing sea of electronics engulfing the musical horizon, droning on one side, humming on the other, with a huge soundscape in between. The piece mutates in magical fashion to the end of the track.
FAUST: Faust IV Remaster+Bonus Tracks 2CD
By the time this album came out in 1973, the legend that was Faust was split right down the middle and, apart from the equally legendary 'Faust Tapes' album that preceded it, this remains their only album in their few months stay with Virgin Records. Although the albums that preceded it have been called genuinely legendary and way ahead of their time, you always got the feeling from the press that, despite the favourable reactions that this on received, that they felt the band's "peak" of creativity had passed. But, time does not fool - and this remains, arguably, their finest album of the seventies in terms of cohesion, innovation and, most important, accessibility.
When you hear the opening twelve minutes of the truly awesome instrumental that is 'Krautrock', however, you are immediately transported into a sonic universe, the likes of which you've never heard as this shimmering wall of electronics and guitars erupts into life, the new and amazing remaster now revealing all the myriad subtleties that are there all around the mix, from the percussive distance through the layers of soundscapes and effects to sounds from which you can only guess the source, as a truly unique and utterly hypnotic world of music gets into your head and refuses to let go - ever! You're hooked! There follows a typically Faust answer to what has gone before in the form of a two minute, completely off-the-wall song in the form of the jaunty 'The Sad Skinhead'. But after that, we move into almost Syd Barrett-esque darkness, as this solemn song called 'Jennifer' begins amid monotone vocals, throbbing bass, crunchy drums and distant cascading guitar backdrops, both beautiful and eerie, but utterly compelling and fascinating, again, keeping you spellbound for the entire time, the song eventually mutating into another awesome sounding wave of shifting, hissing, shimmering electronics, before suddenly changing track into a bar-room piano melody that sees the piece out at seven minutes in typically eclectic fashion. After this you get a three minute instrumental which comes across as a souped-up '72-era Cluster with shards of guitars let loose amid shifting walls of electronics but here with solid electric bass and tumbling drums, as it all fades far too early. Then follows the near eight minute 'Giggy Smile', a song that is a mix of jaunty lyrical and vocal irreverence, sprightly rhythms and flowing electronics, a recipe that shouldn't work in a million years, but in this band's hands, sounds absolutely natural, complete with sizzling lead sax break half way through to add more icing on a seriously strange cake, because, following this, the band provide this almost circus-like rhythm as the guitars sheer and splinter in all directions above the choppy rhythms, cyclical organ-like refrain and massive electronic backdrop, sounding like no other band has done, before or since. The seven minute 'Lauft' goes through more changes than ever with comic drones, electronics, the main song and even acoustic guitar-led delicacy in there too, another combination that can only be theirs. Finally, the three minutes that is the brooding delicacy-into-eerie song that is 'It's A Bit Of Pain', originally the B-side to 'So Far' single that came out a year or so earlier. Remastered to perfection, this album remains innovative, timeless and utterly perfect - there is nothing on here that is filler, wasted or out of place, a landmark in rock history.
But it doesn't end there - no sirrreeeeee!!!
There is now a fifty seven minute bonus disc that is every bit as awesome. The first three tracks and twenty minutes consists of their legendary John Peel session and, although the original titles of the tracks have been changed for this release, it remains a stunningly powerful example of everything that the band could be, opening with the most incredible slice of rolling jazz featuring sizzling sax work, stumbling drums, cascading electric bass and a far distant peel of electronic rumbling. This continues for nearly five minutes when the sax stops, the drums roll forward and slowly this electronic drone emerges from the deep, sounding both warm and yet other-worldly, but just superb around the tumbling drums and solid slow bass, a gorgeous lead guitar line adding the final touch to a spectacular near eight minutes of brilliance, before, without a break, the might that is 'Krautrock' knocks you right out of your seat for nearly twelve spellbinding minutes. Then, also without a break, they go straight into the song portion of the studio set, a typical mix of catchy, jazzy and electronic. Overall, one of the finest ever Peel sessions by any band. After this, comes over thirty minutes of previously unreleased alternative versions of tracks on the album, including an extended version of 'Just A Second', all of which are mind-blowing.
Overall, not only pure genius, but a timeless example of musical innovation that is so accessible at the same time.
GURU GURU: Dance Of The Flames (Remaster+ Bonus Track) CD
The musical output of this band had gone screaming downhill with the album that came out before this, the awful 'Don't Call Us', and that after the first four albums that became the stuff of legends in Krautrock circles and beyond. This was their sixth album, the first to get released in the UK, the last truly great studio album that the band would produce for decades hence, THE most underrated album from this band of the seventies and one that, at the time, got a mixed reaction from the music press, to say the least. Yet, especially now the previously unreleased seven minute bonus track gives this album an even better "balance" than it had before, it's a gem of an album and one that any self-respecting Guru Guru fan should own - come to that, anyone who likes seminal Krautrock electric psychedelic fusion guitar work should own it. Of its fifty two minutes, nearly all instrumental, running time, three short tracks in the middle are acoustic. Elsewhere, it's a storm-force ride through a world of high-flying electric guitar work, now positively dazzling in the remaster (which, incidentally, has also brought to notice much more, the fantastic electric bass work courtesy of Hans Hartmann) as founder and drummer Mani Neumeier provides the foundations on which it all rests. Even including the acoustic tracks, the starring role is taken by ex-Eiliff guitarist Houschang Nejadepour, whose leads and solos throughout are just red hot and sizzling. You only have to listen to the extraordinary Mahavishnu Orchestra-styled blistering electric guitar work on 'The Day Of Timestop' to be jaw-dropped in amazement, while the soloing on the opening, typically early Guru Guru track, 'Dagobert Duck's 100th Birthday', just takes off and never looks back. Elsewhere, it's a real guitar feast, even the acoustic numbers taking your breath away, while the bonus live track (recorded on the later '75 tour by a quartet line-up) is a steaming instrumental with yet more stunning guitar work throughout. Overall, one of THE finest albums the band put out, even better than the fourth album in my opinion, and now sounding positively immaculate courtesy of Eroc's remastering.
GURU GURU: 30 Jahre Live (Eroc Remaster + Bonus Tracks) 3CD Set
Disc one is live in '98 with two lead guitarists notably Roland Schaeffer, plus Luigi Archetti from the Tiere der Nacht project with drummer Mani Neumeier, and the first thing you notice is the clarity of sound and production which is absolutely superb. Then, you can always tell how good a live album it's going to be by heading straight for the Guru perennial favourite 'Der Elektrolurch' and I am pleased to report that this is one of the best versions of the track that I have heard by any Guru line-up since the '70's.with some blistering guitar work in there. Even better is that the rest of the 9 track CD is a stunning live performance including tracks old and new, and should be the delight of all Guru Guru fans, showing that the band are sounding better and more confident now than they have done for many along year. Throughout the performance, the songs sound more urgent and vibrant while the electric guitar work is outstanding, as a ten and a half minute 'Ooga Booga Spec.' serves to illustrate.
CD 2, still live at the same '98 festival, consists of what they call a supersession, together with guest musicians Damo Suzuki and Michael Karoli of Can, ex-Guru Guru guitarist Ax Genrich, ex-Kraan member Ingo Bischof plus two percussionists on a set of seven sizzling mostly instrumental tracks (with track 5 uniting Karoli, Suzuki and Neumeier as part of the group), all of which feature some blazing electric guitar work in classic Krautrock traditions from the massive amount of guitar talent on display, and a totally brilliant CD it is, from start to finish.
CD3 was recorded live in Frankfurt in 1971 by the original trio, is taken from a somewhat rustic archive tape (which actually isn't as good quality as the ones from my collection that I offered for release but which were rejected by Mani, but that's another story), but despite the rustic nature, the group have come out of it a lot better than you'd expect and there is some genuinely great music across the three tracks that they have used from the first album, with some scorching guitar work throughout.
Overall, a fantastic triple, easily the best album from the Guru team in many, many years and one which will find a welcome place in the collections of all Krautrock fans who are into this era and style and this, once fine group, now back and on form.
SCARECREW: Magical Mind CD
From 1975, although the band's origins go back further, comes this previously unreleased set of tracks from a Krautrock band that, over the years, has taken on somewhat cult status. Included in the band are ex-Tangerine Dream keyboard player Steve Schroyder and the vocalist/percussionist from Ash Ra Tempel's 'Schwingungen' album, alongside various guitarists and synth players. Musically, if you're at all aware of that legendary series of archive Krautrock albums that came out a few years back on the Psi-Fi label by the likes of Pyramid, Nazgul, Cosmic Corridors, Galactic Explorers and similar, then that's the sort of thing you're getting here. With tracks from a couple of minutes to over ten, you get a series of tracks that are, like a lot of early Krautrock albums from the time, a guide to a world of wonder and psychedelia combined with a heady dose of guitars, organ and rhythm section, very "far out, man" and a similar experience - only nowhere near as self-indulgent - to the Ash Ra Tempel album '7 Up'.
V/A: Best Of Krautrock Vol 1 DVD
The real deal - a nearly three hour (yes, three hour!!!) DVD featuring ORIGINAL seventies performances on the live German television "Beat Club" programme. The cast list reads like a "who's who" of seventies Krautrock - Amon Duul II, Can, Frumpy, Lucifer's Friend,. Epitaph, Birth Control, Passport, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Kraftwerk, Embryo, Novalis, Lothar Meid, Eloy and Jane with an added, and riveting, short documentary film that features EXCLUSIVE if somewhat short (less than a minute in most cases) footage of Pell Mell, Kraan, Tangerine Dream, Hoelderlin, Atlantis, Kin Ping Meh, Randy Pie, Udo Lindenburg, Ougenweide & Amon Duul. PHEW!!!!
It's all magnificent stuff and a slice of heaven for all seventies fans but of special note are the amazing trio version of Kraftwerk ft Florian Schneider, Rother & Dinger, the steaming sizzler that is Guru Guru's 'Oxymoron', the shadowy glimpse into the world of big moog-era Popol Vuh, the steaming powerhouse of Amon Duul II and the end electric guitar-synth/Hammmond instrumental finale of Jane's 'Expectations' that will blow your socks off. But, truth is that it's all superb stuff and one of the best DVD's of seventies performances yet issued in any sphere of music.
GUITAR MUSIC/GREAT GUITARISTS:
ROB METZ: Legion Of Dreams CD
It's instrumental, it rocks and it really keeps your attention. On that last bit, it fares so much better than many of its competitors, by way of it having 10 mid-length tracks that sound properly composed and arranged to the degree that nothing is wasted, no solo or lead goes on for too long and at no point do you feel that the tracks are just an exercise to show what the guitarist can do. OK, so it's choc full of electric guitar leads, but the melodic content is always to the fore, and despite it having some incredibly tight and strong drumming and pounding bass playing, you never get the feel that you're being beaten over the head with it. Half way through, the pace and melodic intensity does drop down a notch for the flowing anthem that is the wave-your-arms-aloft builder 'Ivory Dragonfly', which starts sedately enough before the guitar rises up and another searing solo flies above an ocean of slowly crunching rhythm section and rich synth textures. Then, with Silverwheel' the dramatic and surging arrangements return with some high-flying guitar work shooting out at all angles and this flavour continues its unstoppable path right to the final track, 'Island Unto Myself' where the pace decelerates and a powerful instrumental, almost ballad-like, track slowly rises up with some shining lead guitar and awesome, expansive arrangements. The best thing about the album is that there's always the "human touch" present and you don't get any other impression than of a musician who's got one eye on the audience's enjoyment of this sort of music, rather than both eyes on his technique. It's not ground-breaking, it isn't going to win any prizes, but for sheer listening satisfaction, it has an awful lot to recommend it.
INDUSTRIAL:
DIOXYDE: Social Phobia CD
Well, if this one doesn't make you want to reach for the nearest noose, then you've been listening to far too much EBM lately. Crushingly claustrophobic, even when the beats decelerate, this is intense. With synthesizers taking up the lion's share of the lead space, stomping electronic drums and sequencers providing the foundation-shaking rhythms, acres of strings, samples and industrial electronics and a vocal that is more menacing than a serial killer, this is not for the faint-hearted - in fact, it's pretty strong stuff for those who aren't! Think you can take the pain - think again - this might just destroy your head if you turn it up loud enough. From rifle-fire beats through huge expanses of depressing samples and electronics to massive blasts of synthesized density, it nevertheless possesses a structure, real songs and instrumentals, even melodies within such an intense framework, and exhibits this atmosphere that is positively leaden, on an almighty heavy slice of EBM-dominated musical maelstrom. You've been warned!!
ENSOPH: Project X-Katon CD
A seventy five minute, fifteen track album that possesses all the best qualities of great electo-industrial rock, with tons of synths, scything guitars, tungsten-strength rhythms, a production that's wider than the Grand Canyon and deeper than the Atlantic Ocean, plus strong and sung lead vocals, harmonies and samples. Put all that in the hands of a band that can write commercial electronic metal of the highest quality, and you have the most powerful and addictive album that will blow you clean out of your chair while at the same time completely transfixing you to its explosive and totally musical qualities. This is structured, heavy, heady and intense but at the same time gloriously expansive, explosive and exquisite. As stunning an album of industrial metal as it gets, this is sure to win over a whole legion of new fans to the delights of this rocket-fuelled demon of a band.
SUICIDE COMMANDO: Bind, Torture, Kill CD
The recent Dioxyde album was a walk in the park compared with this - only this has got CLASS written all over it. With elements of classic early Thrill Kill Kult, Frontline Assembly and similar acts coursing through its veins, it presents a full-on explosion of synthesizers, sequencers, programmed and real drums, suitably phased, low-down menacing vocals and acres of synths, string synths and electronics above booming bass and storm-force drums, as the unstoppable juggernaut marches ever onward. But, what makes this so extra special, is the songs themselves - the writing, construction, production and arrangements are as close to perfect as this style gets. Amid a hurricane of beats, rhythms, sequencers and bass undercurrents, the songs unfold, their grizzly concept coming to life, and everything rises up to form this supercharged sea of intensity as the instruments provide the best slices of electronic industrial intelligent dancefloor that you've heard in aeons. With nothing less than a stunning track on the entire album, this redefines the face of EBM on one of the most powerful and awesome sounding yet immensely playable and pleasurable examples of heavy, synthesized EBM on the planet.
PROG-ROCK:
ABARAX: Crying Of The Whales CD
The unmissable comparison that, once you know, will make you want this album is that, when it powers up it's a dead ringer for mid-late seventies Eloy and when it powers down, it's a dead ringer for early-mid seventies Pink Floyd, and when it combines the two, then heaven awaits!
Largely mid-length tracks - shortest, three minutes, longest over twelve - it's got lead vocals that have all the passion and none of the accent of Eloy's Frank Bornemann while the harmony vocals are exquisite and more Floyd-like. The instrumental work - of which there is plenty - crosses the two comparisons with ease and strength, so that you can be seduced by the gloriously languid Floyd-like synths and guitars one bit, only to be transported upwards to the edge of space when the ship fires up and the waves of electrifying lead guitar and synths take off. The writing and arranging on the album is exceptional and there's nothing on here that's less than highly engaging and long-lasting pleasure. The production is rich and full-sounding, and the whole thing is one mighty concept album that is simply superb. You really don't need to know anymore other than this is a real prog-rock album full of class and quality that doesn't put a foot wrong from start to finish, and if you like either of the aforementioned bands, you'll thank me and then some, for pointing you in the direction of this gem.
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER: Then & Now - Now & Then CD
Wowie Zowie - this is good. With all tracks licensed from Eagle Rock, sadly there are no sleeve notes to say where anything comes from, but that makes you listen to this album for what it is - and that is one red hot live album. It opens with three minutes of 'Toccata' featuring Palmer before moving onto 'Lucky Man', delivered with appropriately heart-felt passion from the golden tonsils of Mr Lake. Then the centrepiece of the album is a twenty-two minute live version of 'Fanfare For The Common Man/Blue Rondo A La Turk' which not only sounds immaculate, as the familiar strains of the classic track begin and then the band just launch into this sea of synth soloing and rhythmic powerhouse driving that takes you to the five minute point before the cyclical organism that is 'Rondo' blasts into existence with Emerson whipping up a storm on moog, piano and organ as the band follow in red hot pursuit, and what follows is one of the finest versions of the piece that you'll hear. Elsewhere, it's a tale of the electric trio providing some spot-on, immaculate quality live versions of classics such as 'Hoedown', 'Knife Edge', a rare outing for 'Bitches Crystal', and in majestic fashion, a five minute medley of '21st Century Schizoid Man/America'.
FUNGUS: Careful! CD
You get an idea of what an unusual and original and ultimately amazing album this is, when you take the ten minute 'Share Your Suicide' and describe it as the vocal finale of Pink Floyd's 'Great Gig In The Sky' set to a driving slice of '90's-esque King Crimson guitar-driven improv styled prog, and the effect is riveting as the juggernaut rhythms lumber along while searing guitars are piled on top, with the wordless female vocal soaring on top to provide the icing on the cake. Mid-way it drops back for a brief female vocal-led word-friendly passage before taking off to the skies for the final couple of minutes of dramatic climax as guitars and vocal rise up. With only a couple of four minute, female vocal-led, songs on the entire album, in addition to this track, you'll find a mostly instrumental album that sounds a lot like a garagey King Crimson allied to 'Fear Of Music'-era Talking Heads, in other words, a blend of searing guitars and addictive rhythms. The ten minute title track will come as no surprise when I tell you that it's like a stripped down '80's King Crimson and 'Cottonwood Hill'-era Brainticket playing Pink Floyd's 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' as the cyclical guitar riff spirals around, the distant female vocal croons and soars, and the whole thing builds into this raging inferno of scorching guitars, solid bass, crunching drums and those distant, now more anguished vocals - a pure, unadulterated parallel universe version of 'Eugene' and simply stunning - before dropping down to a section of riff, rhythm and this lead guitar rising above it all, as the anguished vocal just burns in the background, and it all builds into an even greater raging inferno than before, leaving you jaw-dropped at the result as the band jet off, only to drop it all back in pure dynamic early Floyd fashion once again. Other instrumentals have touches of early seventies Krautrock to them as breathy flutes combine with searing guitars over rolling rhythms ('Latin Circle'), more traditionally prog-styled, electric guitar led, incendiary barnstormers ('Hypnopotamus') and, overall, it's a stunning, original and enjoyable album.
