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Ozric Tentacles - Erpland


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Ozric Tentacles - Erpland (1990 Dovetail Records)

 

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01. 08:20 Eternal Wheel

02. 03:01 Toltec Spring

03. 07:14 Tidal Convergence

04. 04:01 Sunscape

05. 09:14 Mysticum Arabicola

06. 05:40 Crackerblocks

07. 06:21 The Throbbe

08. 05:32 Erpland

09. 06:32 Valley of a Thousand Thoughts

10. 03:17 Snakepit

11. 04:34 Iscence

12. 09:46 A Gift of Wings

 

 

The music of Ozric Tenzacles is a unique amalgamation of ambient, dub and psychedelic space rock, with all sorts of ethnic elements thrown in, mainly middle- and far-eastern themes. But it's really much more than the sum of its parts as you can feel in every aspect what a mindblowing musical talent there is in each of the band members and how well they work together as a whole.

Not all the elements I mentioned are featured in all of the tracks, so there's always a great diversity in their albums. Some tracks are more like rock, others are more like ambient or dub. There can be ambient with or without (electric or acoustic) guitar playing, and they frequently switch between faster rock and slower dub rhythms withing the same track.

Though the band went through several line-up changes during their meanwhile over 20 years of existence, their musical style pretty much remained the same throughout. Nevertheless, with each new album there are new ideas in some tracks and production-wise one can very well distinguish their latest works from the early material they made back in the 80s.

Most importantly there is an absolutely magical atmosphere created in all of the Ozrics' music, it's downright ethereal and it's truly impossible to put into words how their music feels like. I'm not going to write a long paragraph about this again, so I just leave it at that. You just have to listen for yourselves :) .

The line-up for Erpland consisted of band founder Ed Wynne on guitar and synths, Merv Pepler on drums, John Egan on flute, Roly Wynne on bass (replaced by Zia Geelani in '92), Joie Hinton on synths as well as several "guest" members such as Paul Hankin and Marcus Carcus on ethnic percussion and Steve Everitt for sampling. In 94/95 Joie and Merv left the band to concentrate on their (till then)side project Eat Static. They were replaced by Seaweed (synths) and Rad (drums).

 

Eternal Wheel is a splendid example of the Ozrics' space rock side, wonderfully showcasing Ed's amazing guitar playing skills. After the very chilled and percussive ambient piece Toltec Spring follows my favourite track on the album, Tidal Convergence. It is such a sweeping and uplifting tune with its catchy guitar riffs and flute and synth lines, it's just breathtakingly excellent! Sunscape features both acoustic and electric guitar sound and John's flute playing adds to a sort of celtic feel of the track, very nice one. On Mysticum Arabicola we have, as its title implies, more of a middle-eastern theme. It gets a bit overloaded with the oriental sounds later on and thus a little chaotic, but nevertheless it's a well-done track. Next comes the very gentle and dreamy ambient tune Crackerblocks, I really love this one! The we have The Throbbe, which has a slow and heavy beat with highly emphasized and smashing snares. And again a middle-eastern vibe, not at last created by the male singing they sampled here. Erpland is one of their faster rocking tunes, and in the Valley of a Thousand Thoughts we can hear all sorts of tribal percussion and also some tribal voice samples. A very original and exotic sounding track. Next comes Snakepit, another oriental sounding piece, and after this follows Iscence, which is in dub/reggae style and one of the only two Ozric tunes with actual lyrics. John sings on this one, but only for 30 seconds, so it's still mainly an instrumental track. And last but not least there is the epic, middle-eastern sounding A Gift of Wings, which kind of carries the magic of 1001 Arabian Nights, really impressive.

 

So all in all, Erpland showcases a great variety of the Tentacles' musical facets, just as all of their albums do. But I wouldn't recommend just any Ozrics album to begin with if you haven't heard anything by them before. Erpland, however, is a good starting point, not at last since it is one of their longest albums too. Most of the other ones clock in at less than 60 minutes. Many Ozric fans seem to consider it their very best effort to date. I don't think Erpland is better than the others but it's for sure one of their better works. So check it out!!

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Erpland is the Ozrics masterpiece IMHO. Pretty much their "concept" album if you will.

And no, it isn't psytrance, but as it was pointed out, it is psychedelic as hell and definatly has moments of dance and trance. Plus, man cannot exist on psytrance alone - if ya do they you need to expand that musical mind, and the Ozrics are a wonderful direction towards expansion.

 

For a more synthy Ozrics feel, try Jurrasic Shift.

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yes but... it ain't no psytrance, is it?

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i wonder why you didn't comment this on the Orb and alot of other non psytrance reviews?

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about two years ago i was in a dead end.i wanted so much to listen to some extraodinary music that would make me say:oooooooooooooooh!this is what i was looking for.you see i love goa trance and since 1998 goa vanished from tha horizon.so i listened to pungent-effulgent from ozric.my next buy was erpland.i own almost 10 albums from ozrics->they became one of my favorites projects.

 

if u want to listen to something intelligent,goaish,psychedelic and MYSTICAL listen to pungent and erpland.this is a must! :rolleyes:

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  • 2 months later...

One of my all time favorites in any kind of music.

An amazing journey from start to finish. Great sounds, superb melodies, lots of diversity...I love the downtempo/ambient stuff as well as the uptempo tracks... they're all well composed and structured tracks... not boring for a moment. Only production could be better by todays standards.

 

Favorite tracks: Eternal Wheel, Sunscape, Crackerblocks, Erpland, Valley Of A Thousand Thoughts and the ultimate: A GIFT OF WINGS!!!!!

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