THE STRANDS OF THE FUTURE

The opening moments of 'Strands of the Future' are like drifting alone in the Sea of Tranquility. Distant droning cosmic noises which were once violent raging solar storms... but after traveling lightyears to meet your ears, their sound is only a faint whisper.

The epic 20 minute title track is a sprawling masterpiece of Space Rock. The sound is dark, lonely, and alienating... but it is also very meditative and soothing. If you close your eyes you may feel as though you're floating slowly away from earth, oblivious to gravity's pull, into vast black nothingness. When the mellotron choirs begin singing, it feels like some grand celestial event unfolding before your eyes... the music is immersive, wavy, and very trippy.

It can also seem plodding and grow tiresome quickly if you are not in the right frame of mind to appreciate it. So bleak and isolating is this material that it may be hard for many people to enjoy unless they're hardcore Space Rock heads.

The song 'Flight' is beautiful and much less tedious... it features a wonderful flute solo and the music is more in the Symphonic Prog realm. My only complaint is this track is way too short!

'Windows' is more slow-motion space travel, though not quite as effective as the title track, while 'Fool's Failure' is a great closing song with some spooky space synthesizers and fine symphonic sections... many moments of orgasmic mellotron nirvana.

This album is lightyears ahead of Pulsar's debut, and features great improvement in every area. The drumming is extremely simple (like on their first), but is effective this time... and the sound quality is much better than before. If you enjoy slow trancy space music overloaded with vintage analog synthesizer noises, you're likely to love this album!

4 stars if you like Space Rock... 3 stars if you don't.