MUZAK

"Muzak" was love at first listen and SATURNIA are easily my favourite band from Portugal. Funny I went into town for supplies listening to "The Sound Of Muzak" at one point. Yeah different album. This is the project of multi- instrumentalist Luis Simoes who specializes in the electric sitar but man it's a long list of instruments that he plays on here. He also sings and has five guests filling out the sound including Nik Turner adding flute on track #2 and Daevid Allen adding spoken words on "Syrian" the closer. The depth of sound, the layers, the exotic vibes with the sitar and tambura, that early 70's psychedelic vibe is strong here as in "A Saucerful Of Secrets" and mellotron. Come on! There is some variety but this is fairly uniform which I like. They have released 8 studio albums since 1999 and I have some catching up to do, this is the third release.

"Mindrama" is a great opener bringing FLOYD to mind with that urgent sound with mono-toned, low key vocals. Very much a sign of 1971. He repeats "Mindrama" over and over on the chorus. But man this is experimental to start and finish. This is such an amazing headphone album, the sounds are all over the place. "Organza" continues that vibe and we get Turner adding flute and there's also some guest electric piano that I love. "Kyte" reminds me of that song off that MORTE MACABRE album with a female going "La la la la la...." same here. Catchy stuff. "Infinite Chord" has some delay and sitar and then it explodes into an uptempo groove. Crazy synths and mellotron too along with some wordless vocals.

"Analepsis" opens with what sounds like people playing tennis as guest acoustic guitar joins in then it becomes spacey with vocals. Such a cool and drifting track, I like this one a lot. "Aqua" is powerful to start, experimental too before becoming this flute-led piece late, quite beautiful after 5 1/2 minutes. "Nipple" opens with samples before heavy beats take over and organ. Vocals are laid back as they sing over top, flute too. So much going on instrumentally once again as this plays out. "Utterly Luminescent" has a nice slow heavy beat with sitar and sounds that echo and more. It's dark as soft vocals join in. I really like "Hedge Maze" a trippy tune with echoes and beats, sitar too and vibes. Yes I'm hearing mellotron too. Love this stuff. And what a great way to end the album with "Syrian" the longest track at almost 11 minutes. So much atmosphere and Daevid speaks!