ERPLAND

These guys don't change much from album to album. Their sound is a blend of space rock, hard rock, "world music", New Age, techno and reggae. The techno and reggae influences are stronger on later albums. I haven't heard all of their albums but Erpland is my favourite of the ones I have heard.

"Eternal Wheel" is both the first song I heard from Ozrics and still my favourite song of theirs. The whole album is fairly consistent, but this song stands head and shoulders above the rest. I absolutely love the parts with ethereal synths with some good melodic bass playing. Things start to pick up about halfway with bubbling synths and an increase in tempo. Then a great bluesy guitar solo. It gets mellower with flute near the end.

"Sunscape" starts with acoustic guitar. Some flute and tabla. Great melodic guitar lines. Over halfway there is bass and some whistling sounds. "Mysticum Arabicola" is a song you can listen to here on PA. It starts with cut-up vocal sounds. Then a plucked string/percussive like sequencer pattern for most of the song. There is a Turkish string instrument. Later the sounds of people laughing and singing. Then a Turkish wind instrument(I have no idea what these instruments are really called). After a Mid-East sounding synth solo. Sound of water then a flute solo. Then a guitar solo. Later some percussion.

The title track begins with weird vocal sounds. Then uptempo playing with sound effects. Later some great bass. The tempo then picks up with a guitar solo. Tempo increases with a trippy synth solo. Goes back to the uptempo part at the beginning. "Valley Of A Thousand Thoughts" is mostly percussion. The sound of a loon throughout the whole song. Halfway through there is some Middle-Eastern type singing. "Snakepit" has a bass line similar to Gong's "Master Builder". Turkish string instrument. The bass drops out and there is some synth. Bass comes back with a guitar solo.

"Iscence" is a reggae song that actually has some singing/lyrics. In the middle is a great melodic sequencer part. "A Gift Of Wings" starts with New Age synths. Then percussion. Later some guitar. Halfway through some tribal singing and a bass line on synth. Later Turkish string instrument with flute. A guitar solo then some drums and more bass synth. Flute to end it.

One of the best and most consistent albums from Ozric Tentacles. A great place to start with these guys. There wasn't a whole lot of music as interesting as this coming out in 1990. Not the most original sounding music on Earth, but they blend their influences together very well. A well deserved 4 stars.