THE BITS BETWEEN THE BITS

This album was to close the chapter in the early cassette-era releases. Roughly the same time as "The Bits Between the Bits", they released "Pungent Effulgent", their first proper-label release. "The Bits Between the Bits" were leftover material that never made it on any of their albums from "Erpsongs" to "Pungent Effulgent". But these aren't half-ass rejects that should've been thrown in the trash, but top quality material that should've appeared on those albums in the first place. Because of this, the material is a bit more eclectic than anything they did before.

The opening cut, "Eye of Adia" sounds like something off "Pungent Effulgent", and in fact was used on that album, as part of one of the cuts. "Sparkling Oasis" is another one of those reggae tunes the band liked doing at this early stage of their career. "Tidal Otherness" in this version, is just a short, ambient piece, with just the main, recognizable theme, and that's it. The original (off "Erpsongs") is much longer, which ventured more in to TANGERINE DREAM-like electronic music. "Symetricum" is a wonderful piece, utilizing Ed's delayed guitar method, with some great spacy passages. Of course, I could live without Joie's use of the cheesy Casio CZ-1000 (I should know, I used to own a CZ-101, which is exactly the same thing, but with smaller keys, and was a pretty second-rate synthesizer). "Floating Seeds" is a wonderful ambient piece, with some ethnic influences. Then you have "Wreltch", which re-appeared on the 1990 reissue of "Pungent Effulgent", so if you own that album (that is, the Dovetail version or the Snapper version), you know this song already. Great way to close off their cassette-era, as from here on out, they'll be releasing albums on a proper label, with more great albums to come!

This is the sixth and final (thank god) cassette era album of these Tentacles. All are now available on a CD format at a decent price (two cassettes on each double CD set). The music they have offered on these recordings sounds pretty flat, repetitive, and little inspired.

Actually, no big deal so far. Just a mix of dull space music with little feeling for most of it. It was even often combined with some reggae party tracks of the poorest vein. Each of their work featuring one or more of these: and this one is no exception ("Sparkling Oasis").

Considering their average output so far, it is extremely hard to believe that there were some left over tracks during all these years. And guess what? The band decided to release them under the form of this "Bits Between The Bits". Their poorest release so far, no doubt.

Impossible task to point out one single track. All this exercise is just useless and painful. Ambient and soundtrack oriented music at best ("Floating Seeds"), this collection of second (?) tier tracks leads nowhere and should have remained unreleased as far as I'm concerned.

Still, the band has now signed a deal with a record company, and this will have a major impact on their work: the first and positive evolution being truly noticeable in their "Pungent Effulgent". The oriental Koh Phangan is slightly better and more diverse, but don't expect any great stuff. It only works because it breaks the overall mood.

If I were you, I wouldn't spent any time or money to listen to this album. Forgettable, all the way through. Just grab some good "Hawkwind" or "Eloy" works instead. I can hardly rate this one higher than one star. Boring new age stuff, no more. Only the TD oriented "Wreltch" is decent but it is available on Pungeant. The worst of all? Difficult to say. IMO, Afterwish deserves the Palme d'Or.

OZRIC TENTACLES reached the end of the line for the 80s run of their cassette-only / available-only-at-concert days albums by the time they released their last album of this period THE BITS BETWEEN THE BITS (or 'The Purple One'). The band's popularity had started to expand by the end of 1986 which led to more money to buy new equipment. Starting with 'There Is Nothing,' the band began to experiment with more reggae and rock in their sound as well as adding new samples and with the purchase of a then swanky 8-track tape machine, the OZRICS were able to expand their overdubbing and percussive overdrive that sets their sixth album THE BITS BETWEEN THE BITS in another league above what came before. This album is in reality the leftover tracks from the other five cassette releases that came before but because of the extra attention paid to the recording process and the heightened use of percussion and Hawkwind-esque swirling synth action, this one ranks as my favorite of the early years.

Perhaps the material on this one isn't necessarily stronger than what came before. THE BITS has the same hypnotic grooviness and approach of taking layers of synthesized effects and taking you to cloud nine, however the more sophisticated technological advance in production was exactly the ticket to bring OZRIC TENTACLE's sound to a more professional level which is what would get them signed to Dovetail Records where they would soon release their first 'official' album 'Pungeant Effulgent.' What sets this one apart is a more thoughtful use of bass grooves, synthesizer mood building atmospheres and an extremely spacey mixing job. In many cases the sounds sort of 'bleed' together creating an electro-acoustic version of a hallucination. The tracks likewise are more diverse in their approach with a much more varied set of dynamics including more tempo changes, a wider range of timbres with influences from India and other Asian cultures as well as a sense of changing the guitar use up more.

I seem to be in the minority for liking this purple one of the early 'colored ones' the best but THE BITS BETWEEN THE BITS is exactly the type of music i always pictured OZRIC TENTACLES of delivering before i actually heard them. While the previous cassette-only releases were good in creating hypnotic effects to lull the listener into a placid state of bliss, they often sounded cheesy and cheap in the production department which is why out of the earliest albums i find 'Live Ethereal Cereal' to be the best representation of their early days. THE BITS takes all of that frenetic energy found on the live release and marries it to the excellent production opportunities of the studio and elevates it to a totally new level, one where all the influences that led to this point happily perform a matrimonial ceremony and exchange vows which allows everything to mix and meld so smoothly. In addition, the use of samples and odd intros and breaks adds a lot more surprises than the earlier stuff.

Like all of the early cassette-only years, THE BITS BETWEEN THE BITS is most easily found as a part of the entire early years collection in box set form titled 'Vitamin Enhanced' which while released in 1994 has been totally remastered. Although i can't compare this remastered album to the original, i have to say that the one i have is one of my favorite OZRIC albums period because it retains a lot of the early spirit with an enthusiastic flair for newbie technological experimentation.

This was put out as the Ozrics were applying themselves to putting out their first LP, Pungent Effulgent, and so was consciously put together as a capstone to the series of cassettes they self-published over the span from 1985-1989 as they were making a name for themselves. As the title implies, it's essentially a grab-bag of material which didn't otherwise make it onto one of the cassettes, and as such the sound quality can vary a little - the later cassette releases sounded very good, but as might be expected the production values on the earliest ones weren't quite there yet.

As such, the earliest tracks here are a little rougher - and because they hail from a time when the group were still feeling out their direction, some of the material here is rather atypical for the Ozrics. Then again, in some respects that diversity is the collection's strength, because it does at least mean it's always full of surprises.