SUNRISE FESTIVAL

WOW! I was a little hesitant about picking this album as the previous official live releases of the band were dissapointed me, especially Live @ The Pongmasters Ball. However, if someone who familiar with the history of this band takes a look at the tracklist and the lineup of the Sunrise Festival performance, he'll find a suprising fact that the songs what's played belong to a certain period of the band - a legendary period when albums like 'Erpland' or 'Pungent Effulgent' were born... And what a suprise again, the lineup contains two key creative members of that period, Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton. They both left the band in the mid 90's which resulted a considerable change of the style and sound of the band that time. While Pepler appeared in some songs of the recent OT albums, having Hinton back in the band again is a completly new thing (for me). The result is mindblowing to say the least. Mixing is great this time, drums sound fantastic and there's a terrific bass playing through all the performance. And Ed's guitar... honestly it really sounds like if we were in the 80's... exceptional! The only miss is the absence of the usual flutist which could make the sound richer - on the contrary, without the flute the performance is even more like the way the band sounded in the mid 80's: mixture of long heavy solos in the unique style of Ed Wynne along with those weird psychedelic keyboard effects the way that can be heard only on early bootlegs. The performance starts with a nice intro track named from the artist who usually creates the cover art for the albums. The essential part of this release comes right next : probably this is one of the best live performance ever of O-I, Vita Voom and Jurassic Shift. Sunrise Jam is not the usual jam of early songs OT used to play in their past gigs. It sounds more like the last studio album, especially like the song 'Spacebase' with some Waterfall Cities like synth loops here and there. The rest of the songs are more or less in the same high quality (with the exception of 'Snakepit' which is a pretty average song - I've never seen why they play it live so often). This live album is recommended for both the old fans and newcomers or for those who familiar with only the recent releases of the band. Its time to explore/relive how they sounded in their golden age. 4,5 stars, a musthave album.

I have the cd/dvd version of this live set. As soon as the dvd starts you are into the typical awesome psychedelic images that the Ozrics are reknowned for from their album covers.My teenage son was really blown away by how cool the dvd looks. He is right. The set list that the band chose for this festival is sure to please any fan of the band.Ed,Brandi,Merv and Joie are in scintilating form.All the more so when considering that for Merv and Joie it was their first time playing back with the band in 10 years. Ed's guitar playing is brilliant as ever and he surely must rate as one of the best guitarists around. Brandi's bass playing in conjunction with Merv's drum's provide a powerhouse groove to all the tracks allowing Ed and Joie room to add all those swirling trippy atmospherics that I love with Ozric Tentacles. If you can get hold of the cd/dvd package do so. 5 stars for the combo or 4 for the cd because it misses out on The Throbbe. round it to 4.5.

Now this is excellent,everything about this release is brilliant[joie back in for this like kind of reunion],every track here on this has like made the versions of the songs better and everyone here is on top form,i like the dvd better but thats because you can see the performance but the cd is just as good just you cant see the performace thats all[ofcause],i like how this starts with blimey a great track and my favorites on this are "the throbbe" and "eternal wheel"[my favorite ozrics track,with joie and ed together it sounds more like how the ozrics should sound,although john[was on flutes a while back] isnt on here it is just as good,brandi[eds wife]does a great job on bass,and merv on drums sounding really great and powerful,its a pity in away that joie doesnt join the ozrics on full time basis and also keep fulltime in eat static to as i think hes kind of like needed in the ozrics like,but that dont mean the ozrics arnt good still without him,just joie with ed and same back i think fit so well together perfectly,this is a perfect place to start for an ozric beginner[as it has dvd of cd performance which is great and brilliant]especially if you want ozrics later in there carreer but it is older songs,a must have for all ozric fans 100%,this is so enjoyable,and i give it 5 stars.excellent.

This is one of the many live releases by the Ozrics. The first one not to feature John Egan (on flute). What we get is a more rockish affair. Just bass/guitar/synth/drums.

The line up is Ed and Brandi (as the core) augmented with long time drummer Merv Pepler (left in 1994, back fo this concert) and Joie Hinton (left in 1994, back for this concert). Because of this 'reunion' a lot of old songs like Jurassic Shift, Eternal Wheel, White Rhino Tea, Erpland and O-I made it into the set.

Funny thing is: Merv and Joie are Eat Static wich is a techno-band, but on this livedisc the band focusses on jams and the 'rock' side of Ozric spacerock.

A nice extra to this livecd is the new track Sunrise Jam.