LIVE ETHEREAL CEREAL

Ozric Tentacles, like many in the world of jam bands and space rock, are the sort of group where if you've only heard the studio albums, you've only really had half the story at best. This was even more true back when they were putting out their celebrated series of cassette releases from 1985 to 1989, prior to the release of debut LP Pungent Effulgent. The cassettes were alright, but they weren't the main avenue by which the group were trying to reach audiences, just a nice bit of merch to raise their profiles.

No, the Ozrics honed their sound through extensive live gigging on the UK's free festival circuit, and so perhaps the best glimpse of their early sound isn't any of the studio cassette releases, but the sole all-live on, Live Ethereal Cereal. The sound quality isn't perfect, but far better than you would expect for live material recorded from festival soundboards, and the most recent round of remasters has really helped smooth over the imperfections of the tapes to allow this live set to shine.