SPACE AND TIME

Close to a masterpiece I would say - mainly chilled-out trippy space rock from a single event group named ICI MAINTENANTS. All prolific genre musicians, where three of them also played together in the band HERE AND NOW - originally formed in 1974. Furthermore some collaborations with Daevid Allen are to mention which means they have been on the way for several 'Gong' and 'Planet Gong' incarnations. This album was recorded in Summer 2001 - it has been an extraordinary one-of-a-kind gig at Glanstonbury/UK, completely improvised and released in 2003 for the first time.

The relaxed Galaxy Valley starts off with a typical synthesizer intro. A slicing guitar sounding near to a musical saw and swirling synths are nicely flattering each other. You can immediately feel that this gig will develop to something magical. Guitarist Steffe is offering a virtuoso performance here based on a great technical bandwith. He also serves some rare and mystical vocal contributions like on the following Dinosaur Kebab which owns a more rocking and grooving behaviour - closer to the good old spacey Gong style.

The eleven minutes lasting Beautiful Jam first sounds like a trippy Jimi Hendrix is joining - a really fantastic workout! This develops to a melancholic piece later on based on reggae vibrations. The song title Tough Jam is really suitable - the most tricky and complex one for sure - hard to believe that this was the only gig for this crew ever. Shakalayah and Aya Shamaya are appearing like the Flying Teapot is on the way once more - for me the highlights - the jazzy vibe, the tribal drums, accentuated synthesizer adds, the soaring spacey guitar ... hard to overtop!

'Space And Time' is a recommended snapshot for space rock fans - especially when they are in favour of Daevid Allen infected songs. This is far away from monotonously tinged music - an excellent collaboration of four musicians in a genial mood - 4.5 stars.