Ozric Tentacles
Album: Technicians Of The Sacred
Label: Snapperfish
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.ozrics.com

Owing to the fact that the review copy of Technicians Of The Sacred got mislaid in the post, I'm reviewing a nine track download rather than all eleven tracks on this double CD release of all new material from Ozric Tentacles. Two of the tracks from CD one, "Far Memory", (a seven minute track) and "Zingbong", (an eight minute track), I haven't yet heard, but judging by the other nine tracks, I have no reason to suspect that they aren't excellent as well.

Back in the eighties, a friend at work recommended Ozric Tentacles and waved a colourful cassette tape at me. For some reason I didn't ever get to listen to the tape, and I've been meaning to listen to them ever since. Finally achieved my goal, and I like what I hear.

In 1983, at a free festival in Stonehenge, brothers Ed and Roly Wynne, from a band called Bolshem People teamed up with drummer Nick Van Gelder and a keyboard player called Joie Hinton, and they played a late night jam which developed into a six hour marathon and Ozric Tentacles were born.

Technicians of The Sacred is their 21st studio album, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Their music is all instrumental, though there are occasional snippets of sampled voices that weave in and out of the music. Ever changing rhythms and tunes drift in and out through the ethereal and esoteric psychedelia. It is music to close your eyes and get lost in.

Their music is very reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, a band I was very keen on back in the seventies - I wore my copy of Phaedra out! Somehow though, Tangerine Dream's music always felt to me as if it had a Germanic undercurrent, as if you could sense in their music the stresses induced by having a divided country. The Ozrics, at least as far as I can tell from this album, have a much lighter feel, a sort of quintessential English undercurrent. You can almost sense the green rolling hills. Listening to "Butterfly Garden" is like a day trip to the country. Having said that, their music is filled with a lot of different influences. "Epiphlioy" has a very eastern feel.

My favoutite track, is called "Smiling Potion". It has a really strong rhythm section, with the main theme washing back and forth, like waves crashing on a beach. Each wave being subtly different from the previous, but growing gradually in complexity.

Pete Bradley