PYRAMIDION

this is a great CD. all the tracks are great and it's worth it just for the live version of Pixel Dream. first of all it contains one of Ed's best guitar solos. he hits this one note and it's just... ecstacy. alos, as the track ends Zia plays a nice little bass lick and then Seaweed follows with a keyboard line and they spark off a beautiful impro jam out to make the track 12 minutes long. buy it just for that!

peace and love

~Adam

This album leaps at you from the start. The title track brings you that pulsating, high tempo, dance vibe interspersed with Ed's unashamedly rock guitar breaks.

Xingu is one of the strongest tracks on Waterfall Cities. The live version here is fantastic. Zia's unmistakable riff Seaweed's bubbles ... oh yes this is good.

The version of Pixel Deam is fantastic. Ed's guitar here is somewhere in that zone between Steve Vai and Joe Satriani that is just Ed. Fantastic. There's a funky breakdown, which I am sure I've heard somwhere else. The band then chills out to an extended jam ..

Sultana Detrii (another from Waterfall Cities) shows the reggae face of the Ozrics. Groovy chilled out and relaxed, with synth effects and delayed guitar chords and arpeggios rippling over the soundscape. The mood changes and we have Ed's screaming guitar before a dramatic change of mood and the chill returns.

Aramanu is one of my favourites openings (are those goats??) but gotta be said it doesn't really get anywhere. Then you realise it's not meant to. hat's the point ... it's just great to listen to beacuse it takes you away.

A great album: essential for all you space proggers 5 star but not going to float the boat of the prog metallers.

Ozric Tentacles is planet of themselves. Obviously progressive spacey psychedelic team, with their roots in UK underground and their sound in endless trance techno jamming. Their discography is huge, and for casual listeners, as I am, it's far too much to be listened.

I can enjoy their endless jamming, great synthesizers spacey sound and rocky guitar shredding. They have their formula, even more - they invented their music! You can like it or not, but almost every their release is easy recognisable.

Problem for me with their music is I can't stay overdose of endless jamming. Without beginning and the end. Great musicianship ,which starts nowhere and goes nowhere. But I really enjoy listening small doses of their best moments. This EP is a great release for such listeners as I am.

Forty something minutes is classic vinyl LP size, so I can't feel like listening to something short. Compositions there are all strong and comes from few different studio albums. Live musicianship in case of Ozric Tentacles is good choice - recording quality is great and music is more alive than on their studio releases.

I am not a big specialist in band's discography, so possibly my opinion there isn't very professional, but in fact from what I heard from band, I am happy to have this EP as great sample of their music. Even more - I think it's enough for me from them.

You see, possibly I am not the best person to recommend something in case of Ozric Tentacles, but if you're fresh and don't know where to start with them, you can do it right from this release. Possibly, you will be happy with it, and will decide that enough is enough, or it will be just your start to their spacey psyche jungles.

There are indeed very few bands that can be said to have a sound that is unique, one that captures images and styles, transcending all attempts at pigeon holing. The Ozrics are one such band, and in the sixteen years since their first release, they have confounded all of their critics and have managed to sell nearly a million albums in the meantime.

A totally instrumental band is a rarity these days, for one to have succeeded to the level that the Ozrics have is virtually unheard of. This mini-album comprises one brand new song, and four that were captured at The Boardwalk last year and are their first live songs to be released since 1992's 'Underslunky' album. Even though it is a mini album, it still manages to clock in at forty minutes long.

The bass and drums underpin the music, allowing the flutes, keyboards and guitars to create the spell, the magic that is Ozric Tentacles. If you have ever heard and loved the band then you will need no urging to find this album, if you have managed to miss them then your musical knowledge is sadly lacking and now is the time to make amends. Heartily recommended.

Originally appeared in Feedback #63, July 01

I am truly surprised that Pyramidion has only gotten four reviews so far on Progarchives. Ed Wynne & friends are clearly popular, and this is one of the highest rated OT releases. I myself am generally not a fan of the space rock subgenre - I prefer music that is actually composed, and has structure to it. Ozric Tentacles is the exception. I think Pyramidion is one of their best efforts - I'll give it 4 stars. Even the revered Pink Floyd is often too indulgent and eccentric-for-its-own-sake for my tastes! This album is a great introduction for folks who do not know Ozric Tentacles. It contains some of their better known material. As stated in several other reviews, the live version of "Pixel Dream" is just brilliant. "Sultana Detrii" is also a OT favorite, and this is a terrific version. I think the reason that I like OT so much is they write good material with variety, and play it so well. Ed's an excellent guitarist, and the drumming, done by Johnny Morgan and Rad at this point, is always good. The only reason I've given Pyramidion 4 instead of 4 and 1/2 stars is that most of these songs would already be familiar to regular Ozric Tentacles fans.