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Øresund Space Collective

Experiments in the Subconscious

Review by Gary Hill

Any time you put in a new album from Øresund Space Collective you have a good idea of what you are going to get. This set is no exception. Their brand of improvised instrumental space rock has become a flavor palate of its own. There is a range to it, though, and this is actually one of the more effective discs from their ever-growing catalog.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2020  Volume 1. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.

Track by Track Review
Lost in Africa
Cool guitar brings this into being. A killer bass groove rises up as it continues. Other instruments join, and we're off into some energetic space music. There is some pretty awesome keyboard jamming on this thing. Around the seven-and-a-half-minute mark it drops down to a slightly mellower movement. As the guitar starts to really scream outward when the tune regains intensity, I'm very much reminded of some of the harder rocking jamming of early Pink Floyd. Some cool, somewhat mellower, psychedelia takes over around the twelve minute mark. The cut keeps evolving from there, though. It eventually makes its way back to some purely powerhouse space jamming. This cut is a bit over 17 minutes long, and they make great use of every bit of that time.
Prosthetic Cuban
There is a real jazz groove as this thing fires out of the gate. As you might guess from the title, the percussion has a Cuban feel. The jam really creates some intriguing textures and grooves as this works onward. At almost 20-and-a-half minutes of music, this is the epic of the set. It gets an electronic music meets jazz fusion vibe grafted to it by around the five-minute mark. This works to some really powerhouse space jamming as it continues. Around the 11-minute mark we're taken into a jam that gradually reduces the tempo. It really showcases the psychedelic and space tones, too. After the 14-minute mark it turns into some much mellower weirdness, but the cut rises up from that respite after a time into a new powered up jam that's classy and mysterious. It drives upward and onward and really intensifies as it grows. This is quite a powerhouse, really.
Lost Milesage
There is some serious funk built into the fast paced groove that leads off this number. At 16-and-a-half minutes, roughly, this is only the third longest piece of the set. This thing gets into some smoking hot, driving rocking zones as it continues to evolve. The track is one of the most straight-line things here, eventually getting into a slower kind of space jam around the nine-minute mark. The piece makes its way through this less pacey section for a while before firing back out with renewed intensity in some powerhouse jamming. This number actually has some of the most powerful jamming of the whole set.
Oops
This is the shortest piece here at about three-and-a-half minutes long. It really reminds me a lot of some of the more keyboard oriented stuff from Levitation era Hawkwind.
Hieroglyphic Smell
Starting hard rocking with some particularly tasty space rock, this thing works forward from there. This thing gets into some pretty weird territory at times. I'm pretty sure I can make out a nod to "Smoke on the Water" on this, too. This is without question the most dynamic and sound stretching thing here. It is quite crazed through a lot of its more than 14-and-a-half minute duration. There is an intriguing dropped down movement around the eight-and-a-half-minute mark that has some cool violin work. The cut gets a bit more melodic as it turns toward a little more mainstream rocking zones further down the road. It eventually makes its way to more of a crazed kind of arrangement that calls to mind early Pink Floyd. Dropped back, but no less intense space jamming takes it at the end.
 
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