WATERFALL CITIES

Wow! This is probably, in my opinion, the band's finest album, it seems like all their best moments are included in this wonderful record, so extremely underrated, while other Ozric Tentacles are a little overrated (Arborescence in primis). Even though it's not a five star album, it still gets 4.5. The style is always classical OT, but the main difference from all the other albums is that this one is much more refined in the composition, the songwriting is much better, the general production is impressive. Also, "Waterfall Cities" contains some of the coolest moments of the band, like in the songs "Xingu", the title track, and the final impressive "Aurora Borealis". But even all the other songs.

Everything starts with "Coily" probably the least effective song in the album. The effects are pretty cool, the melody is eccentric enough, overall it's a fine song. "Xingu" is possibly my favorite OT song.It contains some of the coolest effects, rarely you will find pieces like this in a Ozric Tentacles album. Catchy in some moments, kind of minimalistic in others, heavy, thanks only to the very strong keyboards, especially in the intro. A fantastic song. The title track is another masterpiece. Eleven minutes of pure heaven, a song that you should definitely listen to. Here we find one of the band's best performances, and all the musicians work in harmony, so perfect that I can't even imagine doing something like that with my band. "Ch'ai" is a oriental sounding based track, interesting in many points, however sometimes (rarely) it might bore. It might. "Spiralmind" is one of those tracks that makes you feel like your going inside another dimension, another universe. A masterpiece, perfect if you want to relax, with some new age kind of music. "Sultana Detrii" is another very relaxing song, really worth the listen if you ask me. We have, like in other song of the album and he band in general, some dub elements, combined with psych rock, new age, and electronic. My favorite part of this song is around the middle, where everything stops, except the amazing sound of tropical forest animals combined with two simple but very effective chords played with the synth. A great song. "Aurora Borealis" is a completely new idea for the band. It is more and ambient song, but a lot more enlivened. There aren't too many drums, making the atmosphere even more relaxed. Although some moments are pretty "heavy", thanks to the use of the synth, in the middle part especially. A great closer, possibly the band's best one.

As a conclusion, I must say that this album sadly isn't loved enough, it is so full of impressive moments and great atmospheres, that many times are even better than the ones we found in "Curious Corn". Buy it, you won't regret it: this must be the best collection of OT songs ever.