OZRIC TENTACLES — Swirly Termination (review)

OZRIC TENTACLES — Swirly Termination album cover Album · 2000 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
FunkFreak75
Ed Wynne and his Ozric friends are nearing the end of an era with this album. Though the music isn't sounding tired, it is feeling somewhat formulaic and repetitive.

1. "Steep" (3:12) the best song on the album for its fresh, pastoral world music take, great bass sound (and play) and great DAVE GILMOUR-like rock lead guitar. (9/10)

2. "Space Out" (8:28) what starts out with some promise turns sour with its disco drum beat. (17.375/20)

3. "Pyoing" (4:29) solid rock rhythm foundation with JLP synth weave over the top pans out to be nothing more than another Star Wars video game soundtrack. Not even Ed's inventive "Middle Eastern" electric guitar solo in the second minute can save this one--though the tightening of the bass and drums in the third minute is an improvement--as is the addition of the Petri Walli guitar play thereafter. The long drawn out finale also diminishes the powerful mid- section. (8.875/10)

4. "Far Dreaming" (5:24) a song made up of several threads that are kind of at odds with one another. Interesting but ultimately feeling more like an experiment in combining that fails to deliver the desired magic. (8.75/10)

5. "Waldorfdub" (6:13) another one of the boys' variations on the Reggae music. Though this song is interesting for its bare-bones exhibition of percussion, it is ultimately kind of boring. (8.6666667/10)

6. "Kick 98" (6:03) a nice PETRI WALLI/KINGSTON WALL opening guitar is diminished by the movement and reversion into more comfortable OT sounds and individual styles. (8.75/10)

7. "Voy Mandala" (11:52) a pretty good song with strong Southeast Asian representation is marred by the Jamaican Reggae bass play. Also, Conrad Prince's drum play here just struggles to fit with A) Zia Geelani's bass play and B) the rest of the music. The scond half is, however, a little better--once Zia leaves behind the Reggae bass lines and Conrad is able to sync up better. (21.75/25)

Total Time: 45:01

Despite the fact that I do love to hear the "real" instruments being played (as opposed to the computer-programmed tracks that will dominate the future albums (starting with Spirals in Hyperspace), my feeling is that the band in its current lineup, form, and orientation has "played itself out." I welcome the arrival of the next gen of musicians (Ed's kids) and the 21st Century computer engineering. Even the swan-song album of this lineup and form, the highly- acclaimed live album, Live at the Pongmasters Ball, feels more akin to these "end of the century" albums than it does to the "future" sound that Ed and family ignite in 2004.

B/four stars; a fine representative of the Space/Psychedelic sub-genre, just not up to creative and innovative standards of other OT albums.

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