I have always liked this band. I have to say that this disc, though, is a real change. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it – in fact, I like it a lot. It just means that, no matter how familiar you are with OSC, you probably won’t expect this one. It’s not much like the Hawkwind-inspired sounds the group normally creates. Instead, this tends towards mellower, more psychedelic sounds with Pink Floyd, The Doors and Iron Butterfly showing up in the list of references. That’s not everything here, though, with some world music and jazz also well worth mentioning. It’s definitely a strong disc and a great change.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012  Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

This comes in gradually and with a definite psychedelic groove, a bit like early Pink Floyd. It rises up gradually from there. Some sitar-type sounds are heard over the top as this grows outward. This moves and changes slowly, but consistently. It’s like watching clouds moving in the sky, the changes are subtle when taken moment to moment, but when compared in the long haul, it’s a dramatic alteration. It works out towards more traditional space rock at times and different instruments take the lead role at different points, too. There are clearly bits in this that feel a lot like The Doors, too.  It’s quite an intriguing ride overall.

Mellow music opens this one with an almost smooth jazz meets psychedelia and space rock feeling.  There is some particularly tasty guitar soloing as this continues and in a lot of ways it feels like a Pink Floyd meets jam band kind of thing, but with definite jazz in the mix. The Doors is also a definite reference point at times on this jam.

There are definite Asian elements on the opening segment here. The cut grows out gradually with that and psychedelic sounds merged. As it continues that Asian element goes away and more of a space rock meets psychedelic music (with plenty of The Doors) is heard on this piece.

As this opens, Pink Floyd is clearly a reference point again. There’s a great mellow groove here and this builds out nicely. It works out gradually from this starting point. Later in the piece, as it works out to more traditional rocking sounds, organ rises up bringing in hints of Deep Purple, but then moving it into something closer to traditional progressive rock with a lot of retro psychedelic in the mix. Later it almost seems Pink Floyd has met Iron Butterfly in a progressive rock jam. This is the most dramatic and powerful cut of the whole set and it really does have some of the coolest music of the whole thing. It’s also one of the more dynamic pieces here. It dissolves into some space weirdness later. After that it works back out to some pounding jams that are a bit more like traditional space rock. It is one of the only moments where a reference to Hawkwind would be appropriate, and they are usually a pretty common reference for OSC. As it pounds upwards during that movement that connection is even more apparent. After that they take it into some almost jazzy space territory. It keeps evolving and changing from there. Later in the piece there are some sections that seem to have a Spanish kind of sound.