THE BLACK TOMATO

This Black Tomato can only come from outer space for sure ...

I love this album! The band, consisting of 9 astronauts, takes off into space again with exciting grooving jams - presented very relaxed with much easiness and wonderful melodic parts. OSC's concept is consisting of compelling psychedelic twin and triple guitar work, based on an excellent working rhythm section and combined with diversified keyboard stuff - what more can you expect?

OSC is a space crew headed by captain Scott Heller which doesn't line up as a usual band. Changing members is a principle, a method to inspire the band again and again. They have excellent connections to the space/psychedelic scene of scandinavian and even other european countries. So they are inviting wellknown musicians from time to time to participate at their concept especially for delivering live performances. But 'The Black Tomato' this time is the result of studio sessions - recorded on the fly and without any overdubs!

The opening opus RumBle is 38(!) minutes long, devided in 5 parts and provided with russian spoken word poetry. A fantastic trip whereas they are floating from one planet to another - speed-up and periods of rest and weightlessness are alternating whilst OSC is reaping the valuable black tomatoes - this is never boring in any way. Spacey guitars with delay effects, synths but also jazzy elements by electric piano and a funky bass. Even some krautrock contributions similar to Ashra are to remark.

Early enough before they reach the point of no return OSC is inverting with the title song dominated by a decent dub groove. The instruments are stimulating each others joyfully on the way back using the complete range with synths, hammond, fender rhodes and many guitar riffs. With Viking cleaner OSC is hurrying up with a lot of speed to enter the atmosphere of the home planet and finally is gliding weightlessly back to the ground ...

Never thought such a new inspiring thing could be possible - a jewel is coming back directly from outer space with a touchdown in Sweden and now (hopefully) infecting planet earth.

A masterpiece of the space/psychedelic subgenre - an excellent addition to every enhanced prog collection. Congratulations OSC!

Copenhagen-based international band Øresund Space Collective have been active since 2004, now and then releasing CDs with some of their favorite jam-sessions exploring space rock.

The Black Tomato is their third release, and on this CD the band take their cues from spaceship Hawkwind. In performance the guitars are the central driving instruments, with guitar patterns evolving from sounds to riff patterns to soloing and then back to fragmented sounds, with mainly two guitars evolving in this pattern, always seeing to it than one guitar maintains a riff-based style while the other is exploring more soloing or spacey sounds. Bass lines and drum patterns are the foundation, while synths flavor the soundscape with melody lines, fragments and sounds.

Hawkwind-like guitars as they played in the early 70's dominate this release, and fans of Hawkwind - especially their live more or less improvised tunes, will love this one.

ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE is based out of Copenhagen and boasts a 9 peice band with members from Denmark, U.S.A. and Sweden. The band themselves describe this album in the liner notes like this: "In some ways, this is our most Krautrock-in-space effort yet but also some of the best heavy grooves we have ever made as well". Considering there are three guitarists, two bass players, a drummer and three guys playing a variety of keyboards and synths you would think it would sound chaotic and too busy. It doesn't though, this is very rhythmic and trippy as they seem to jam endlessly during this 77 minute album.

"Rumble" is divided into 5 parts and is over 38 minutes long. Part 1 (Faked It All The Way) has a nice heavy sound to it and a great rhythm. The guitar comes ripping in around a minute, a blistering attack. It calms down 6 minutes in as the rhythm stops. Part 2 (Consumed By The Goblin) has some spoken words before a minute that are replaced by heavy drums and synths. The guitars start to make some noise. Psychedelic guitars before 9 minutes and then it settles a minute later as it blends into Part 3 (OSC Bolero). This part has a beat as it builds to a great sound 4 minutes in as the guitar starts to light it up. Spoken words after 5 minutes as the trippy sound continues. Part 4 (Falling Stardrops) trips along in a laid back way. Deep bass, guitar and drums are prominant. Synths come and go. The tempo slows down before 7 1/2 minutes as it blends into part 5 (Grab A Cab). Synths wash in before a minute in this spacey conclusion.

"The Black Tomato" is divided into three parts and is 32 minutes long. Part 1 (Moonhead) quickly builds, leading to a great sound 4 minutes in. Lots of synths. Organ 5 minutes in. It settles as it blends into part 2 (Sundown) where it picks back up quickly. I really like the sound 5 1/2 minutes in as the organ rips it up. The guitar is aggressive 8 1/2 minutes in. It calms right down 11 minutes in as it blends into part 3. It's 3 minutes before a fuller sound comes in.Love it ! Especially the guitar then organ after 6 minutes. The guitar is on fire after 8 minutes. Amazing sound. "Viking Cleaner" builds from spacey synths to bass, drums and guitar a minute in, to an intense soundscape before 5 minutes.

This is an incredible trip that is easily 4 stars. A must for Spacerock fans.