LIVE ETHEREAL CEREAL

Much maligned live OZRICS album, I think the only reason for that criticism is the sound quality, which isn't the best, luckily it isn't that "recorded off someone's home cassette recorder" quality. I have no problems hearing all the instruments being played. You also have to bear in mind, in 1985 and '86, when "Live Ethereal Cereal" was recorded, the band still had no recording contract with a record label, and they already had two cassettes under their belt, with "Tantric Obstacles" and "Erpsongs" that they produced and released themselves. Of course, being an unsigned band at that time, they didn't have the benefit of top quality digital equipment like a band at that time who was recording for an actual record label.

"Live Ethereal Cereal" consists of performances from four separate shows in England, three of them in Reading (September and December 1985, and February 1986) and one in Glastonbury (October 1985). Given the circumstances, this is a truly amazing and underrated live album. All but two cuts are actually stuff found nowhere else! You get to hear early OZRICS performing some rather raw and exciting stuff, like "Erpriff", "Tentacular Explosion", and one of my favorites, "Obstacular Explosion". Two songs from their then-current cassette releases, "Tantric Obstacles" and "Erpsongs" were represented by "Og-Ha-Be" and "Dots Thots", both of them arranged a bit differently from the originals, but with the familiar themes still intact. All the wonderful OZRICS stuff can be already found here: totally wild guitar from Ed Wynne, with lots of great spacy synths from both Joie Hinton and Tom Brookes. Roly Wynne (Ed's brother, sadly now deceased) handled the bass, and Tig (aka Nick Van Gelder) handled the drums. If you bear in mind the technical limitations the band had at the time in the process of recording a live album cassette, you got yourself some amazing performances. Luckily they paired this album with There is Nothing (perhaps their best cassette-era release, in my book, although many say "Sliding Gliding Worlds") as a 2-for-1 CD set (prior to that, sold separately on CD by Dovetail, and before that, part of the "Vitamin Enhanced Box Set"). Great stuff, if you don't mind the sound quality!

My rating: 4 1/2 stars

OK, before you even kick off with this one you have to explain how bad the sound is ...woeful almost beyond belief: I have heard better bootlegs. I was at Reading in 1986 but to be honest I can't remember that much (or to be really honest hardly anything at all) about it.

Og Ha Be (a track we hear in Live Underslunky and a shorter verion on Tantric obstancles): still reminds me of part sof Call the Police by Thin Lizzy.

The "suitably chemicalized Ozric tentacles" bring us Erpriff: boy does this sound like Steve Hillage or what? But with a sinister Ed slant. A great track that melows out into very cultured groove.

ed gets out the delay for tentacular explosion. Stupd reggae spends a while messing about before it gets down to a basic regge beat. the Wailers are under no threat here. havign sid that prog-reggae is quite unusual in itself. Not one to frantically dig out when you're given 10 minutes notice before heading to the desert island.

Aumriff: hmm that would be Om Riff then wouldn't it. Hillage again.

Obstacular explosion as opposed to teh earlier tentacular explosion begins with a bit of tuning up before Ed heads off delay working hard.

Dots Thots is simply a great track, as always (check out erpsongs and Live underslunky), however this is the ropiest recording. Erpitaph is great.

This a good OT album. By no means essential (3.5)

This is the first live recording available for Ozric Tentacles. It has been released as a double CD set in combination with "There Is Nothing". You can get this for less than ten ? (shipment included) on Amazon.fr. For this price, it is a good deal.

Now, about the content.

I wouldn't say that the music here is revolutionary but it is definitely better than their studio recordings. The opening number Erp Riff is very good and doesn't share a lot with its studio counterpart (on their first release "Erpsongs").

If you would exclude the well named "Stupid Reggae" which is just a poor habit of the band who always felt necessary to release at least one reggae-oriented track on each of their studio releases for several years, this space-rock almbum is highly energetic ("Aumriff"). I also particularly like the "Explosion" parts, which are solidly influenced by the early live Floyd.

I wasn't really enthusiast about their studio releases, but I have to say that these live recordings are substantially better. At least, one can feel the band a little more. There is a soul here which is not present while in studio and it is more than welcome.

IMO, this is the best album from their "cassette" era and deserves three stars.

LIVE ETHEREAL CEREAL (aka "The Yellow One") is the third cassette-only release from OZRIC TENTACLES in the 80s before their first official debut "Pungent Effulgent" came out in 1989. As the title implies this is a LIVE release and their first of which that showcased the band's diverse sound giving us insight into the shows that attracted them a loyal following during their 1985-86 performances mostly in Reading and Glastonbury, UK. Most of the material here is only available on this release.

It really hit me upon first listen how much better the songs are on this one than on the studio albums showing that OZRIC TENTACLES are indeed masters of the improvised jam and seem to provide studio albums only as teasers to what they were really known for with their ambitious and entrancing LIVE performances. The Hawkwind-esque space rock once again meets reggae, lysergic synthesizers and hypnotic echoing grooves and percussion. There is also a Steve Hillage tribute on "Aumriff" that borrows the classic guitar riff from the "Fish Rising" album.

I personally find LIVE ETHEREAL CEREAL to be a more interesting listen than the first two studio albums. The energy and vitality of the band is on full display here. While the songs can range from aggressive to sensual and fluffy, the band play together in a tight and proficient manner and all members involved deliver the highest quality LIVE performances. Ed Wynne is noteworthy here as his guitar riffs are outstanding but it's Joie Hinton's space synth contributions set the whole thing on fire and into space as the drums, congas and bass lines deliver unrelenting rhythms. If you only get one of the early OZRIC TENTACLES albums then this would be a great start because it really exhibits everything the band is famous for at this stage of their career. Probably the only thing that is problematic on this one is the sound quality since these were recorded on primitive technology but even so all the instruments can be heard quite well and the remastered version cleans it up significantly, so not a problem for me at all.

Like all six of the cassette-only releases LIVE ETHEREAL CEREAL was eventually released in 1994 by Dovetail Records on CD and today can be found digitally remastered and available in the "Vitamin Enhanced" boxed set.

Ozric Tentacles, like many in the world of jam bands and space rock, are the sort of group where if you've only heard the studio albums, you've only really had half the story at best. This was even more true back when they were putting out their celebrated series of cassette releases from 1985 to 1989, prior to the release of debut LP Pungent Effulgent. The cassettes were alright, but they weren't the main avenue by which the group were trying to reach audiences, just a nice bit of merch to raise their profiles.

No, the Ozrics honed their sound through extensive live gigging on the UK's free festival circuit, and so perhaps the best glimpse of their early sound isn't any of the studio cassette releases, but the sole all-live on, Live Ethereal Cereal. The sound quality isn't perfect, but far better than you would expect for live material recorded from festival soundboards, and the most recent round of remasters has really helped smooth over the imperfections of the tapes to allow this live set to shine.