[.ca] Spirals In Hyperspace

unusual progression:
My first reaction to this CD was from listening to "Chewier", which immediately put a huge smile on my face; worth waiting for. It's quite an astounding composition with quite a driving force through it. Most of the rest of the tracks still have to grow on me and I agree with some other comments that it feels as if it wanders a little. However, this is almost like earliest albums, so it has that feel to it. The deviation from this, though, is the mind bending "Psychic Chasm", which starts gently and melodic, but builds up into such a pulse pounding percussive and bass driven assault. I keep having to replay it, and loud: It's unbelievable and very appeals to the primitive part of our nature I expect. Make sure you've got good bass speakers or it'll make them wobble and distort. All in all, a good CD. Some tracks are not as tight as is usually the case, but this is more than compensated for the 2 excellent tracks so far.

Spirals in hyperspace:
The title for the album couldn't be better! I'm listening (and loving) OT for about 4 or 5 years now and am prous to have seen them 4 times live and own the live DVD they have released. This is a killer album if you are into progressive AND pychedelic rock! ever since i got a hold of this album i played it. Great compositions, great pshychedelica, great musicians! if you are into pucho/ prog/ rock you should onw it! (They are not playing for 20+ years after-all with a growing fan base behind them ;-))

Ozricyourself:
Awesome cd, simply awesome. Go buy it, you won't regret it.

League of its Own:
Impossible to describe with words the breadth and beauty of these 9 songs, and the fantastic mental and emotional journeys they take you through. The Ozrics are not only technical masters of their instruments, but also creative genii of brilliantly imaginative and atypical soundscapes and rhythms - a deadly and extremely rare combination. My first Ozric experience; certainly not my last.

A Troubling Trend....:
First the good news, if you're a direhard Ozric fan check this album out. It is an interesting extension of their sound, and contains some places they have never gone before in their back catelogue. Now for the bad news....I find "Spirals in Hyperspace" to be by Ozric standards a bit of a dissapointment. Admittedly the production is excellent and there are still lots of creative moments, however Spirals continues a troubling trend toward Ed Wynne monarchy. Consider that only 3 tracks have live drums, and 1 track featuring live bass. This gives the mix an even more synthetic feel than normal, as well as a lack of compositional "chemistry" as its pretty much Ed behind the controls. The songs as forementioned do include inspired and creative moments however many seem overall to have an unfocused feel. Rather than having an overall riff, theme, or melody, which holds the song together, the songs on Spirals begin and just seem to go wherever they please. Those familiar with Ozrics music know this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I however feel like it is done to an excessive degree here and which doesn't really work overall. Finally there is the obvious disparagment of the live band tracks and the Ed solo programing which makes it seem less unified than a tradtional Ozric album. In all this album is way better than no album....but leaves much to be desired.

• Chewier
• Spirals In Hyperspace
• Slinky
• Toka Tola
• Plasmoid
• Oakum
• Akasha
• Psychic Chasm
• Zoemetra