ENTERING INTO THE SPACE COUNTRY

Planets, stars, nebulas?a spacey tale!

Another feast of space progressive rock can be found in this album which was released last year (2011) though recorded in 2010. Its name is "Entering into the Space Country" and since the title one can imagine what the band offer here, well, if you already know them, then you will already know in which country are you entering. This time they share a three-song album that makes a total time of 44 minutes.

It opens with "Born between the Stars" whose 22 minutes give us a journey to their peculiar and particular galaxy. It starts softly and gets more intense while the seconds run. The atmosphere and spacey synthesizers are always there, sharing nuances and colors, while the guitars can offer not so trippy notes, or interesting vivid riffs, if required. I like the changes in this track, the first minutes are soft, but after five it changes and becomes faster; later it slows down again and at minute nine its intensity increases once again, expressing the activities that one can have while being born between the stars, well, let your imagination fly. The jam continues for some minutes, creating those different inner passages that together complete the puzzle.

""Red Earth Calling" is the shortest composition with "only" seven minutes. The funny thing here is that OSC has made us used to their long 10+ minutes jams, so in a shortie like this everything passes fast, so when you less imagine it, the song has already finished. This track is calm and atmospheric, with nice guitars on it and a soft rhythm, though there is a moment when it seems to become a bit heavier or chaotic, but that does not actually happen.

The last track is "Rising Tides and Floating Nebulas". The first couple of minutes are not that attractive with an uncertain sound that fortunately morphs later; when it changes, the rhythm is now attractive and even addictive after three minutes, with fast drums, cool guitar notes and very good synth and keyboard effects. When it becomes more intense is when I enjoy it the most, because it transmits that vertigo and pressured feeling that makes me want to run, haha funny. But well, later it slows down considerably and that emotion is lost in me. The last three minutes are nice, trying to recover from the lower moment, but it does not reach its peak again.

As usual, this is a very nice album from this collective whose music are guarantee of good time and quality, however, I did not feel that motivated or caught by what they offered here, that is why my grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!

`Entering Into the Space Country' sees improvisational instrumental space-rockers the Oresund Space Collective at their most intense and intimidating, playing with a true sense of danger and fearsome psychedelic tension. Like the invading alien ships on the front cover of the LP, the band themselves seem to be raiding the senses and asserting their control over the listener, and it's not for the faint of heart! This is one of their best so far, and they've never sounded so focused and dynamic. In addition to the occasional and expected little moments that have a Hawkwind or Ozric Tentacles influence (which the band leave further behind with each new release), this time around they even seamlessly work in elements from the early albums of Porcupine Tree, ambient dance group The Orb, and most surprisingly Steve Howe and Yes. But most surprising is that they've also developed a serious case of the deep space blues!

Head Oresund visionary Dr Space achieves superb results with his chosen associates this time around (and for the companion album from the same sessions, `Phaze Your Fears'). In addition to the three amazing guitarists I'll mention below, thanks to Troels Drasbech, never has the drumming sounded so varied, unpredictable and propulsive. The bass playing of Jiri Jon Hjort is given a thick and upfront place in the mix, creating a truly commanding and trace-like sound. Dr Space himself and fellow synth player Mogens Pederson actually take a less prominent role this time, preferring to colour the backgrounds with restrained electronic washes while letting the other great musicians take the centre stage.

Opening with a galloping `One of These Days'-like Pink Floyd rhythm and lots of short sharp guitar stabs over drifting synths, side-long piece `Born Between Stars' is one most draining works the band has composed so far. There's a fiery intensity, a real harshness to the ragged guitar soloing from Claus Bohling and Stefan Krey that just goes on forever, reaching out to the furthest reaches of space, taking on a snarling menace. You'll have the sensation of being totally overwhelmed, isolated, slowly slipping into madness, and the band has never sounded so darkly groovy before. Half way through we arrive at a slightly calmer passage, full of lulling repeated sleepy bass lines, shimmering synth programming loops and delayed guitar jamming. But it's all a deceptive calm before the storm, as Troels rattles off a machine gun drum attack and the band goes berserk, full of thrashing scorching Hawkwind meets Ozrics face-melting guitar intensity and thunderstorm whirling keys. After a few minutes of sonic menace, the band retreat back, and I'm sure for a few seconds they're almost channeling Yes from the opening of `Soon' off their `Relayer' album. Some sedate and soothing final moments with an almost skipping guitar melody, before a spontaneous final comeback run from Troels that picks up the tempo, you almost get the feeling this piece could have taken off in yet another extended direction here...and even after 22 minutes, it still seems to end too soon!

After opening like The Orb's `Spanish Castles In Space', full of floating loneliness and synths groaning heavy sighs, the energetic momentum begins again as `Rising Tides and Floating Nebulas' sees the band kick off with some very relentless dirty bluesy slide guitar playing from Mathias Danielsson, almost sounding like Yes' Steve Howe in his noisy 70's live prime. Every O.S.C albums brings something new to their sound, and this is quite an interesting direction for them to wander down! Add in some Ashra-influenced electronic looping, plucky foot-tapping bass, sprightly up-tempo drumming, Steve Hillage-like delayed chiming guitar work and swirling hypercolour synths bubbling all around for your perfect outer space voyage! The final drifting passage is one of the most triumphant themes the band was achieved on disc so far, managing the sort of grand melodic extended guitar solo that Steven Wilson used to perform on the early Porcupine Tree albums so beautifully.

7 minute finale `Red Earth Calling' makes you think you're going to get a nice come-down to end the album on, but very quickly that hint of threat and menace slowly creeps back in. Full of middle- eastern mysticism, we're initially blessed with hypnotic waves of trilling guitars and phasing whirlpools of synths, it almost even resembles parts of Jefferson Airplane's classic rambling `Spare Chaynge' instrumental. But very soon the music takes a bad turn, weeping bending guitar lines start to resemble tormented wailing cries, the atmosphere turning thick and brooding. It ends the album and the listener in a dark place, very confronting and quite brave for the band.

The darker elements of `Entering Into the Space Country' makes this one of the more challenging releases from the Oresund Space Collective, but it's also inspiring just how good they're getting, every album bringing them one step closer to releasing that truly perfect album. Fans of overwhelming spacerock and involving improvised music will find much to appreciate here.

Four stars.