GALAXSEA

Four years after the release of the excellent "From Above", the British band LUNAR DUNES launches their second album "Galaxsea", this time even more Psych and acid than their previous release and as usual with a touch of Jazz.

Their classic fluid jamming style makes the music flow gently and offers a great variety of sounds and landscapes which are easy to enjoy despite the complexity of some passages.

Even when they basically keep the same lineup as in their debut (except for Julia Thorton, who plays harp on "Svalbard", "Free to Do", "Eastern Promise" & "Off World Beacon"), t they sound more mature than ever and seem to have completely found their own sound, departing from previous influences such an PINK FLOYD, and managed to create an original style despite the fact that they are playing one if the earliest forms of Prog Rock (Psychedelia).

My problem with modern bands embracing Psychedelic/Space Prog is that they get too close to Ambient music and they become predictable and boring after the first track, this is not the case of LUNAR DUNES, because they combine the haunting choirs and experimental sounds with a hard guitar, frantic drumming and Ian Blackaby who glues the band together with his competent bass.

Albums like "Galaxsea" are hard to review in a song by song style as I usually do, because they sound more like a full 56 minutes coherent work, rather than in separate songs placed together in one album, in other words they respect their style and fluidity of the music. This is more obvious when you notice that they have added all the songs with harp at the end of the album, so the transition is gradual.

If I had to choose favorite tracks I would go with the hallucinating "Oriental Pacific" and the haunting and mysterious epic "Svalbard", two different approaches to the same sound, but to be absolutely honest, they don't present us a weak track.

I also recommend special attention to the unique and delirious guitar sections in "Oh You Strange Tune", simply delightful.

In my opinion "Galaxsea"is a strongest album than the already excellent "From Above", but sadly this won't be reflected in the rating, being that our system doesn't allow the half stars, so I will have to rate this outstanding effort with 4 stars that should be 4.5/5.

I'm impatient for LUNAR DUNES next record, just wish they don't make us wait another four years.

Keep Proggin'