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Ozric Tentacles - Curious Corn CD (album) cover

CURIOUS CORN

Ozric Tentacles

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.94 | 198 ratings

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Rune2000
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Since I consider my review of Jurassic Shift to be highly representative for almost all the early Ozric Tentacles-releases, let's go a bit further in their discography and straight into the realms of electronic music!

By the end of the '90s the band began to move further into the realms of electronic music and it was only a matter of time until this direction would take over completely. Curious Corn certainly marked the completion of that transition featuring everything that would be expected of the band from that point on in their development. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I always thought that Space Rock was always striving towards the unexplored frontier of electronica from the get-go. Just recall Pink Floyd's On The Run, from the classic The Dark Side Of The Moon! I would also like to assume that if Pink Floyd began their career today then their music would probably have been entirely electronica-based, to the great discontent of David Gilmour!

Even if Ozric Tentacles comes from a slightly different camp, being primarily influenced by Steve Hillage's escapades into groovy Space soundscapes, their involvement with electronic beats and new sound effects came pretty early on in their career. Still, it never really sounded as extreme as this album's opening track titled Spyroid! This is simply groove electronica at its finest that doesn't really transition into pure Trance music but similarities are certainly there.

After the less spectacular Oolite Grove and the prolonged Afroclonk-jam that merely served as a reminder of the band's scope of versatility, we finally get another exploration of that new interesting Trance music-like setting on the album's title track. Although a bit long, this 11 minute performance certainly pushes all the preconceived notions related to Ozric Tentacles' music and makes me want to groove along to those crazy beats. Oddentity is another throwback to the World Music sounds of Afroclonk while Papyrus marks the unexpected return to the more traditional arrangements that do come off sounding out of place on this otherwise strictly electronica-based recording. Besides, I can't listen to this composition without thinking of how well King Crimson handled that same setting on Talking Drum. The final track feels much more organic in its style and I like how it winds the listener down after the upbeat rhythms that preceded it.

I'll be honest and state that my relation to Ozric Tentacles' music hasn't really improved since my first experience and I consider them to be a bit too groovy just for sake of it, which is not something I support. Even if Curious Corn has spent a lot more time on my play-list than any of their other albums I still can't give it more than a good, but non-essential rating due to the lack of any real innovation here, outside that which has happened within the band.

***** star songs: Spyroid (3:48)

**** star songs: Afroclonk (8:07) Curious Corn (10:56) Oddentity (7:00) Meander (5:13)

*** star songs: Oolite Grove (5:58) Papyrus (5:33)

Rune2000 | 3/5 |

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