ARBORESCENCE

Hit the ground running with the Astro Cortex. Wow, what a start. The Ozrics sweep you up and rush you up to cruising height at which point Zia kicks in smooths things over for a while. THen spinning wildly in some sort of whirlwind before you are deposited in relative serenity. Merv Pepler keeps the backgournd swirl going so you know it's inevitable that you will be picked up once more ... and you are. Fabulous.

Yog-Bar-Og is beautiful dreamscape Ozric. it's also yet another really bizarre name for a song. Nice on. The transisitons are smooth and apparently effortless. Zia is awesome as ever. Never a wasted note (nah make that never an extra note).

The title track is amongst my favourite Ozric tracks purely atmospheris and it just hits the nail on the head. Al-Salooq a nice track with pseudo middle eastern overtones has a perfectly timed bass line. Ed's subtely mixed rhythm is perfect.

the Dance of the Loomi is as you would guess form the track a superb dance number. But nothing in the titel can do jsutice to the rolling bass and Joie's synth strangeness. Lace this with a delicate echoed guitar executed with the expected genius of Ed Wynne and you have the quintessential Ozric dance track. it just does not get any better than this.

I swaying groove takes over in There's a Planet Here. Shima Koto is my least favourite track. There is some great guitar from Ed, perhaps the best in the album.

Since I'm a huge Ozric fan and this is one of my favourite albums it's got to be a 5.