WATERFALL CITIES

Apparently there was something happening at Snapper Records that didn't please the band, so they left the label, and started their own Stretchy Records label (and had American distribution through the ill-fated Phoenix Rising label). "Waterfall Cities" was their first on their new label. This album, while not bad, falls in that wankfest, where they seemed more obsessed with plastering it with as many silly electronic effects as possible. I think the reason for that was the band was trying to obtain new equipment, making the recording process a little more difficult. In fact, the first two cuts, "Coily" and "Xingu" seems to drag on a bit more than needs to, and "Xingu" is full of those annoying electronic effects the band needed to lay off. "Waterfall City", luckily is a vast improvement, and they go in to lengthy jams and a techno experiment. "Cha'i" finds the band exploring Chinese styles, and also adding a truly funky synth bass. "Sultana Detrii" finds the band exploring reggae for the first time since "Erpland"'s "Iscence", but they also move into other stuff too. Not the best OZRICS album, but at least I can say I never heard a bad OZRIC album either. "Waterfall Cities" is basically for the fans. To me, their following effort, "The Hidden Step" is quite an improvement, so if you want to hear more recent stuff from them, start there before you come here.