GALAXSEA

There's no mistaking ... LUNAR DUNES is a collective of experienced musicians, featuring bassist Ian Blackaby, guitarist Adam Blake (Cornershop) and drummer Hamilton Lee of world/fusion band Transglobal Underground as the core. It took four years to offer something new - 'Galaxsea' is their second effort, my first attempt though, released on UK based 4 Zero Records label.

This CD starts innocent somehow, on Moon Bathing they say hello by providing some regular downbeat/lounge/nujazz impressions first, decorated with Krupa's charming voice. Usually I would assign this to a Cafe Del Mar compilation. Eh ... not bad at all, but not what I expected exactly. Well. that's all for now? By no means ... step by step they throw weird electronica gimmicks in, Adam Blake's psychedelic guitar appears expressive more and more ... and sooner or later it will be clear, that you're listening to a rather experimental blend of music styles, come what may.

Most of the songs are taking around five minutes, each possesses an unique atmosphere, for example a restrained dub groove featuring spacey guitar and synthesizer adds, oriental touches, an hallucinatory flow as implemented on Svalbard or just take the hypnotic krautrock feel given on Free To Do - absolutely flawless all over. Oh, I should not forget to mention both Pharaoh's Dream and Ayaz - especially the excellent drive due to Blackaby's funky bass and Lee's lively drum playing. And please don't miss to watch out for Larry Whelan's playful and emotive keyboard and electronic contributions.

Bravo, overall the nine songs combine a cool jamming attitude and entertaining variety at once. The positive vibe invites to relax. On the other hand you won't miss a bunch of challenging moments. Krupa's voice is experimentally distorted here and meandering out of this world there, similar to Anisa Romero of Sky Cries Mary. LUNAR DUNES are mixing mellow space rock with some groovy triphop appeal, to sum it up. No weakening in between - promised! 'Galaxsea' is a surprising discovery while presenting an impressing song collection according to my taste.

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'