SPIRALS IN HYPERSPACE

1. "Chewier" (5:26) a little heavier space funk than the usual fare due to Brandi Wynne's rather low-register note play (on the "glide bass"?), Stuart Fisher's prominently-mixed drums and some lower-than-usual synth programming. Nice, driving music thought not as melodic as one might like. (8.75/10)

2. "Spirals in Hyperspace" (9:51) opening with more low-end synth programming with which drum programming is played. Nice dreamy synth/electric piano chord play and synths enter in the second minute. Because of the intricate keyboard work this one takes on a much more jazzy feel and flavor. I like this! At 2:20 Ed's searing VAI-SATRIANI-rock guitar enters for a bit in the center stage spotlight but then yields back to the keys. Great stuff! Around the five minute mark there is a slight tangent into a rock bridge before returning to the main motif for some more stellar keyboard work. Weird flute work is the next guest performer (from the "ney"?) Ed's guitar gets another nod in the seventh minute for about 30-seconds, alternates with keys, and then retakes the lead a minute later. In the ninth minute the band slides into a more blues-rock mode rhythmically as the guitars and keys just keep blasting their way across the universe. Very nice instrumental performances across the board on a sonic tapestry that rather works. (18.125/20)

3. "Slinky" (8:39) more low-end synth programming with lite "drum" support and airy electric piano synth play over the top. More layers of synth noises work their way into a weave. I very much like the thinner quality of this sound field as I can easily pick out all of the nuanced complexities that each instrument is submitting to the weave. What sounds like Steve Hillage's heavily-treated guitar starts to shred through the cosmic ether at the six-minute mark, adding great dignity to the interstellar chase. (If that's not Steve Hillage then mega kudos to Ed for such an amazing impersonation!) Good song! (18/20)

4. "Toka Tola" (7:46) back to a harder-driving, bluesier foundation over which synth drums and interesting keys (old and new) play. Nice "bass" lines and synth drumming in the more-spacious third and fourth minutes. There's quite a little PAUL HARDCASTLE sound and feel to this. The tempo really picks up in the fifth minute--I feel like I'm in the middle of Todd Rundgren's "Treatise on Cosmic Fire" from his Initiation album! Then there is a sudden lull before the band re-starts a kind of J-R Fuse rhythm track for some spacey synth work that sounds like a musical rendering of the subatomic world. Excellent song. Easily my favorite on the album. (14.5/15)

5. "Plasmoid" (5:17) stretched-rubber sounds ("spikes"?) open this one before synth bass and synth drum programs kick in. Nice rhythm and lead guitar work the second minute: funky and rockin'--as well as the expanded variation of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" vocoder. The fourth minute is more about percussion work, percussion patterns (again bringing "Rockit" to mind). Starting at 4:10 there is a slow speed up of the programming to a more third or fourth gear speed. Pretty cool song with great inventive sound creation. (9.25/10)

6. "Oakum" (9:03) water/underwater sounds precede some cool synth marimba sequencing. This plays for quite a while with various synth and percussive incidentals making their appearances from the sidelines. At 2:50 the low end rhythm instruments jump in and the keyboard tracks multiply. At 3:33 PETRI WALLI-like echoed guitar enters with more drum kit-sounding drum patterning (which are, in fact, real "live" drums from Stuart Fisher). The alternating (duelling?) synth and guitar soloing that follows is some of the best I've ever heard from this band. (The KINGSTON WALL sound and feel doesn't hurt, either.) Another top three song for me. Cool bass play from Zia Geelani in the eighth minute and beyond. (19/20)

7. "Akasha" (7:27) multiple guest guitarists are cited for this one--and they're wonderful--but the synth bass play and other keyboards may be just as impressive if not more. Very solid, high quality song--especially that bass play--even including some very engaging textural weaves, both harmonically and melodically. (14/15)

8. "Psychic Chasm" (8:44) a two-part song with the first pastoral and Garden of Eden-like while the second, switched into in the fourth minute, very trip-hoppy with use of the ultra-low bass+bass drum made famous by Soul II Soul over ten years prior. Ed's searing echo-effected lead guitar play in the seventh minute fades off into some more tribal sounds: percussion and shamanic voice effects. Floaty guitar notes enter and take off in the eighth minute, occupying a background or side-bar position while the synths and electronic percussives occupy the front and center stage. Interesting! (17.75/20)

9. "Zoemetra" (7:23) jungle Indian sound palette with some syncopated percussives providing the rhythm track while Ed's great nylon-string acoustic guitar work reinforces the song's world music nature. "Oriental synth" melodies and various flute sounds parade across the soundscape while Stuart Fisher's drums and more synth bass work continue to move the song along at an insistent pace while the rest of the instrumentalists step back to offer only occasional and intermittent ejaculates. Though Stuart's drums sound synthesized or programmed (like the Ben Watt's work on Everything But The Girl's Walking Wounded album), I believe they are just treated. Ending with pure jungle sounds. (13.375/15)

Total Time 69:36

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music from a team of computer-synth and sound-engineering masters.

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