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Ozric Tentacles | The Hidden Step

shhsheehssh! fffllooovvvvshhh!
CD, Stretchy/Bertus

Tekst: Bas Ickenroth

Publicatiedatum: 15 november 2000

Another year, another Ozric Tentacles release. This year's 'The Hidden Step' is even the third release in copyright, after the remix album 'Floating Seeds' (with remixes from Propellerheads, Eat Static and many others) and a (by the band) unapproved album (because released on an other record label) 'Swirly Termination'. Now it's the turn for the regular annual album. And to make a long story short: If you liked the Ozrics before, you can blindly buy this record, and if you didn't like the Ozrics until now, don't bother to listen to it. Personally I have a weak spot for this band. There's no band that is so consistent in making the same music over and over again, and although I always seek for new and original music, as long as Ozric Tentacles produce albums like this I will keep listening to it. Even if the new album sounds exactly the same as the former 15 (give or take a few) albums. I don't think they're capable of changing their style anyway. These five hippies from the south of the UK still compose their music out of equal amounts of spacerock, dub, dance and progrock, with touches of ethnic world music and ambient. Not a trendy sound, and I highly doubt if this album will provide any new fans, but the real Ozric fanatics wouldn't want it any other way. Their addictive, psychedelic sound is mostly created by the endless guitar solos and the warm synths that are really all over the place in all the songs. Add an incredibly tight rhythm section and a mad flute player, and there you have it: seven long, mind-altering, instrumental songs without any catchy hooks, very psychedelic, dreamy, and groovy. And the instrumentation and production are, as always, from a very high standard. If this is your first experience with the Ozrics and the above sounds interesting to you, it makes no difference whether you begin with this album, or last year's 'Waterfall Cities, or 'Arborescense' from 1994: They all sound exactly the same. Don't look for catchy tunes (Upper-Ozric Ed Wynne once admitted that even he wouldn't know from which albums the songs were if you would let him listen to them at random), you just have to consider that it is all one big trip. As Sun Ra once said: Space is the place, and you can be sure that Ozric Tentacles are professional astronauts by now.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/ozric-tentacles/the-hidden-step/193/
Meer Ozric Tentacles op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/ozric-tentacles