ARBORESCENCE

Arborescence is another competently composed and performed album from the Ozric Tentacles which will offer absolutely no surprises to anyone who has heard the preceding albums. It's often said that the Ozrics keep remaking the same album over and over again; I would say that's an exaggeration, and that they did at least in their early career seem to evolve their sound appreciably (particularly in the period from Pungent Effulgent to Jurassic Shift), but this time around the continued development and refinement of their approach seems to have stalled. It's not a bad album by any means, but it doesn't offer me anything which Jurassic Shift or Erpland didn't either. One could accuse them of just constantly remaking the same album. But you have to admit... it's a pretty good album.