TIME MACHINE

Dzyan's instrumental second album `Time Machine' combines eastern raga, dark jazz and progressive rock set amongst an ocean of psychedelic experimentation. Quite schizophrenic and disjointed in structure, the album tracks alternate between ethnic influenced ambient acoustic pieces and noisy spacey guitar heavy jazz workouts that sometimes don't hold together too well placed side by side, but are always endlessly inventive, full of incredible musicianship and original arrangements. Krautrock fans unaware or unsure of this album should look into it straight away!

Opening with a slow building and immersive eastern influenced ambient piece, `Kabisrain' is a heady mix of acoustic guitar, sitar and ethnic percussion that, with it's occasional frantic and tense outbursts, creates a very disorientating mood. But nothing prepares you for the thunderstorm of dirty bass, spasmodic violent drumming and maddening repetitive jagged guitar playing that is `Magika'! Very oppressive improvised jazz with a slightly sinister tone, with complex rhythms weaving in and out of the dissonant and atonal noise. Some sections remind me of the extended aggressive guitar workouts on Guru Guru's `Hinten', with groovy moments and jammy solos squeezed in too. Totally addictive and sure to drive you up the wall - in a good way, of course! `Light Shining Out Of Darkness' is a warm acoustic diversion with confident guitar playing and gentle percussion. There's some lovely and memorable musical themes throughout the short piece, alternately reflective, sad and joyful.

The improvised side long title track is an explosive electric guitar, aggressive drumming and pummeling bass atmospheric jazz assault. Overloaded with liquid bass runs, wailing guitar solos and loose jazzy drumming, the jammy piece has a propulsive and fiery fusion sound that drives it along. It's frequently up-tempo and constantly changing directions, and a real showcase to the talent of the musicians. Some brief sections of the piece become stuck in a repetitive and plodding groove that is quite maddening!

On the first few listens, the album is quite jarring and messy. The odd combination of ambient ethnic pieces placed next to alternating guitar heavy and jazzy experimentations means the album is strangely unbalanced. Some listeners may enjoy some of the pieces, but not other ones. A few replays reveal an addictive work you can't wait to listen to again, and I think anyone with an interest in progressive rock will find something interesting amongst the whole album. The band would better incorporate all the conflicting different styles together on the next album `Electric Silence', which is even stronger than this one, but `Time Machine' is still an incredible and original work filled with energy and imagination. It's also aged exceptionally well, and is highly recommended for psychedelic, jazz-rock and Krautrock followers.

Both this album and the follow-up are available on a single value priced CD, which is a steal considering both of them are superb. Well worth snapping up for almost 75 minutes of incredible progressive musicianship.

Again, thanks to Doug and John for the initial Dzyan recommendation I took a chance on!