ALICE IN ULTRALAND

My mother told me that if you can't say anything polite, it's best to say nothing at all. I'm afraid I won't be taking her advice.

Not content with the most extreme change of direction in the history of music - from techno to 60's psychedelic prog rock - AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS aka FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON went further and produced a second psychedelic disc a couple of years after the first. Where the first disc (The Isness) had power, this is flaccid. Where The Isness had beauty, this has mundanity. And where The Isness gave us the sounds of nostalgia, this gives us - well, ill-considered noise. Apart from the first track, a prelude to disappointment, this album is uniformly without merit. It was as though their market research had led DOUGAN and COBAINS to believe all their listeners wanted was a 'sound-alike' record. We still get the wide variety of instruments, most from the East, the electronica is still as weird as ever and the production is sumptuous, but these parts do not make a cohesive whole. Moreover, there are virtually no songs here. No meaning to attach to these sounds of the 60s. 'The World Is Full Of Plankton' raises its head for a moment above the primordial ooze, but that's about it for this record.

There's only room in your collection for one faux-sixties psychedelic sound-alike record, and it ought to be 'The Isness'. Do not be tempted to buy this.

Just why this deeply trippy album gets such a negative write-up from various progarchives contributors is something of a mystery to this writer, because this is actually rather wonderful. Released in 2005, this was the fourth album issued under the Amorphous Androgynous moniker adopted by Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans, a London-based duo perhaps better known to some as both the popular underground dance act Future Sounds Of London and the compilers of several volumes of the excellent 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind' series of compilation albums. Despite their background in dance music however, the twosome obviously have a deep fondness for a wide variety funk, rock, jazz and folk-based 1960's and 1970's psychedelia, and 'Alice In Ultraland' is an impressive testament to that love. Skilfully blending dance elements, woozy beats and ambient washes with proggy instrumental flourishes and a dzalling array of psychedelic sound effects, this arguably ranks as the finest of all Amorphous Androgynous albums, though die-hard prog-rockers may wince at some of the album's more 'contemporary' elements. But it's their loss. From the opening strains of the blissful opener 'The Emptiness Of Nothing', to the cosmic grandeur of stand-out track 'All Is Harvest' and the neon-coloured keyboard washes that pulse throughout 'The World Is Full Of Plankton', this lovingly-crafted slice of neo-psychedelia rarely lets up, sweeping the listener along on a kaleidoscopic sonic journey brought to full life by the diamond-sharp production. Even the album's sleeve manages to allude to the clever crossbreeding of hazy sixties ideals and 21st century cool, with an EMI stereo label cunningly placed in the corner of for true authenticity. A real trip from beginning to end, and all the way in between, 'Alice In Ultraland' is a rare beast indeed. Those with an open mind will surely be in psychedelic heaven. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2015