NATURAL SELECTION

Having delivered a very promising debut in 1994, with Pacific Coast Highway (stand-out tracks: Conspicuously Empty and At Lands End), Lands End proceeded to follow it up with the less adventurous Terra Serranum (1995) (stand-out tracks: Terra Serranum and Neptune's Last Year) and the decidedly uninspired and unimaginative An Older Land (1996) (stand-out tracks: none) which displayed an unsettling combination of dubious rhythms, dodgy timing and non-challenging musicality. So a progressive deterioration; and that could have been that - another short-lived band of unfulfilled potential destined to disappear unceremoniously up its own spacey ego. But wait! What's this? In 1997, from out of the blue, and totally blitzing all that preceded it, comes Natural Selection. Setting aside the seemingly mandatory inclusion of a short excerpt of completely irrelevant and meaningless tripe i.e. the opening track - (an archetypical prog rock conceit - why do so many bands persist with this nonsense?) - this is an absolute joy from start to finish, and more than delivers on the band's early promise. The eponymous final track, in particular, is a 30-minute monster of rare beauty; but tracks 2 to 5 aren't far behind. The recurring bursts of wah-wah guitar (albeit not in the league of those delivered by Quintessence's Allan Mostert) sound fresh and are particularly welcome.

So it would appear that, with its underwhelming 1996 output, the band was simply toying with us, setting the bar artificially low and thereby totally under-preparing us for the forthcoming delivery of this wondrous gem. Neat move.

This is a terrific album, and highly recommended (if you can somehow get hold of it at this stage, so long after its release). It's great stuff.

For what it's worth, the band's subsequent (and seemingly final) release, The Lower Depths (2005) (the first part of a double-CD package), justly stands on all fours alongside Natural Selection. It, too, is a really enjoyable listen throughout. I would, however, caution that the second CD in the 2005 package (Plundering the Depths) is not worth investigating in isolation, save for the opening track, Eyes of Venus, which holds up nicely.