ØRESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE

Groovy Neo-Hippies embracing the Beyond. Just superb!

This debut album by the band is perhaps slightly more structured than future outputs, but that's neither a plus, nor a minus. It's just how they were in that moment. OK, lets lay down the Law. This is largely instrumental jamming of the better kind.

Now, I could never come to terms with as why some people have that serious dislike for jamming, a form of credible and artistic approach to improvising. OSC are a largely improvising band with a door open to virtually anyone to join in. In their live performances, you'll never hear the same track performed in an identical way and I just love that sense of freedom and openness!

These guys actually fill a huge gap in Prog. Spacey, yet sophisticated in their approach to simplicity. The rhythm section swings in a slightly jazzy way, providing a vehicle to the synth layering of "space sounds" and the guitars to add some nice licks but nothing to do with boring Electronic stuff that puts you in a coma for little gain..

Now, onto the customary comparisons. The effort is much closer to better moments of Steve Hillage, but also invites memories of the Floydian approach of the '70s. Contrary to the space sound, very little to do with Hawkwind, a band that I also like - with some reservations.

Ageing hippies - like myself - may remember of the attitude to "sharing is caring" that's not known in today's "dog eat dog" societies running a threadmill of greed. These people have the generosity of heart to provide free downloads of numerous live performances from their website. Hard copies too, could be obtained at a peppercorn price.

Now, that's the spirit I can happily relate to. Aside from the very enjoyable music, they make me feel like I've gained an instant family, a tribe. The package as a whole (music and attitudes combined) deserves a 5 from me, nothing less.

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Smashing, fully improvised space rock from a talented group of Danish and Swedish hippie revivalists, one of several masterpieces under their belt. All sorts of rock and electronic instruments and effects went into making this chilled, beautiful soup of an album, ever varied. This is the stuff of mental journeys into the beyond. "Faked It All The Way", "Consumed By The Goblin", and "Sundown" are the highlights, the last two of these being over ten minutes a pop. Electronics, drums, and bass particularly carry the day, but everything is excellent and used flawlessly. The album pretty much is ethereal electronic effects supported by rock instruments and prog keys, all brilliantly laid down to facilitate relaxation and trips. Just mental and beautiful. Highly recommended.

Named after the bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden this is ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE's debut album released in 2006. They are an 8 piece band at this point with four of them playing synths although one of the four also plays Fender Rhodes and another also plays guitar. We have two bass players, a drummer and a guitarist rounding out the lineup. I had heard some samples from this last year causing me to believe this was the best I had heard from the band but I must say after spending considerable time with it that I feel "The Black Tomato" is still my favourite of the ones I've heard.

"Faked It All The Way" opens with so many intricate sounds here that blip, pulse and ping, well you get the picture. It does settle back before 5 minutes and it becomes more spacey right to the end. "Consumed By The Goblin" features spacey synths along with cymbals and some guitar. It starts to build before 1 1/2 minutes as the drums join in. I like the Fender Rhodes after 4 minutes. We're just tripping at this point. The organ is welcomed after 6 1/2 minutes along with the guitar. The guitar starts to soar around 8 1/2 minutes then the organ returns 10 minutes in as the guitar stops. It calms down around 13 minutes and this continues to the end as we get spacey winds and more. "OSC Bolero" is by far my favourite. I'm so reminded of LE ORME of all bands right here. Those melancholic synths and that beat are amazing. This is darker overall as well. Great track!

"Falling Stardrops" is spacey with bass and cymbals then a beat eventually joins in. This is so relaxed and trippy. Spoken words arrive after 5 1/2 minutes and continue until almost 7 minutes in. Guitar to the fore then the electric piano joins in before 9 minutes. "Grab A Cab" has an almost Reggae beat to it with twittering electronics and guitar helping out. That Reggae vibe ends later on though. "Moonhead" is a short spacey tune with plenty of atmosphere. I really like this and wish it were longer. "Sundown" is the over 17 1/2 minute closer. I'm not the biggest fan of this as it is often fairly subdued. Picked guitar and spacey winds join the sparse intro. It's getting louder 4 minutes in and Fender Rhodes joins in around 5 1/2 minutes. It then turns quiet for some time with synths. It's the bass/ drum/ synth show for quite a while as the guitar comes and goes.

It's certainly worth the 4 stars but I seem to get a lot more out of ELECTRIC ORANGE these days. A great start to their careers though.