SWIRLY TERMINATION

There is a shroud of mystery surrounding OZRIC TENTACLES' @Swirly Termination@ album. From the research I conducted I found that the group considered this as an incomplete recording and an obligatory release to satisfy their commitment to the label. Another oddity was that it was listed in the massive AMG database without a review. The group does not list the CD on their site either. Its too bad they aren't recognizing this fine achievement of instrumental progressive space rock. There are also no credits listed on the CD inner sleeve. I found a listing of past and present group members on the group's site, so I am assuming it was the present members that performed on this year 2000 release. Well, I hope this is the lineup that played on this album. I am sure someone will let me know if its incorrect. I had no way of finding out through the usual methods.

Regardless of the inconsistencies and incompleteness of this release in other areas besides the music itself, I found it to be a fantastic listening experience that left me wanting to hear more of the same. Ed Wynne plays a key role with his authoritarian guitar playing pushing Seaweed (keyboards), John Egan (flute), Zee Geelani (bass), and RAD (drums) into instrumental warp drive. Some Middle Eastern influences are detected from time to time along with whirling dervish keyboard playing and fat power chords that make this group a difficult one to classify. They border on techno at times then jump right back to the prog sound very quickly. That's what keeps everything interesting while listening to OZRIC TENTACLES. I look forward to hearing more.

Terminate the Swirly mess from your collection

Some have written that this album was unfinished and abandoned by the group as they changed labels and the old label chose to release this against the band's wishes. I do not know if that's true but the album sure sounds unfinished and I would understand why the band would not be happy. It starts out pretty well but eventually succumbs to aimless fluff-psych wandering that was such a snore. At times the material will remind you very much of Djam Karet, Kingston Wall, or even Pulsar, but there's a difference. On the best albums by those groups (Devouring/KW2/Strands respectively) you will find great, highly inspired composition and dynamic interplay between musicians. You will feel that beyond the spacey sounds and far-out ambience there is great purpose that the band is working towards. No such lofty goals on "Swirly" where it often sounds like lost, emotionless musical flailing. It really does sound like there were outlines for some potentially good tracks here that were simply not brought to fruition, leaving much of the album less than compelling.

"Steep" starts out very cool with a fast-picked acoustic with some effect on it and awesome swampy bass. Half way through Ed tears into an electric solo with a feisty raw sound and you get excited that this is going to be great. Swirling synth sounds abound as they do all over this album, thus it appears aptly titled. Probably the best track. "Space Out" is a boatload of ambient noises and trippy keyboards creating some worthy headphone moments I suppose. About half way through the band has joined but does not take over, leaving the track as a sonic freak-out for the most part. "Pyoing" starts with a quick drum beat and a drubbing bass swimming through all manner of electronic gadgetry sounds. After the synths explore some very high pitched registers there is a scorching electric guitar solo that turns to rhythmic jamming. Quiet space soundscapes fill out the last minute or so. "Far Dreaming" features some soaring psych guitar leads in the early going over the murky bass and a fairly modest beat, the consistent keys/noises shimmering all around making things trippy. Some keys enter with an exotic sounding solo then things drop off into quiet with just light cymbals and bass. This goes on with nothing much else happening and it is around this time that you realize you're heard everything there is to hear, but the album is only half over. Perhaps an EP of the first 3-4 tracks would have been a better release. "Waldorfdub" continues what is becoming sort of a pointless exercise of rather inconsequential music. A repeating bass line with drums over which we get lots of gimmicky sound effects.pretty poor stuff here..repetitive with little of serious value. (Perhaps good stuff if you've got some good chemicals to go with it-I read a lad on another site say it was a great album to get high to, so perhaps that's my problem...too sober.) The drumming is very good but it's not enough to save it. "Kick 98" is very reminiscent of a Kingston Wall track with Petri-like guitars and muscular bass with the space noises of KW-3, but again, repetitive and luke warm stuff. "Yoy Mandala" begins in interesting fashion as "space-reggae" with a reggae rhythm and the Ozric space keys. Some wordless vocals fill in the background space. Two minutes in we get a guitar solo as the keys get louder. Things then drift into various exercises of the same rhythms with noises as I fight my hardest to stay awake and attentive. It gets more intense near the end as it works to pull you back in but by this point you really don't care anymore.

In its best moments "Swirly Termination" will feature a blast of great electric guitar or some interesting sound effect. But this is a mess of an album that will test your willingness to endure extended bouts of repetitive material with very little payoff. It is not the Ozric album to start with and should be consumed by the dedicated fan exclusively. The fabulous cover art is the best thing about this release. The Ozrics are a legendary band and I feel bad going two stars but I cannot call this "good." 2 ½. Fair with some good parts.

I was not expecting too much from this OT album, since the last one of the kind The Bits Between The Bits was quite nightmarish. This album is actually a collection of left-over from 92 through 99.

I was ready for the worse, and to my great surprise, the album opens on one of the finest songs from the band: Steep. The guitar work is excellent even heavy and it is combined with pleasant sounds out of another world.

The band remains in good, but no adventurous, territories with a classic and spacey OT track: Space Out (well named). This album is of course not a revolutionary one, but most of the songs featured are doing their job; even if Pyoing is probably not the best of all: at least it features a solid beat and, again some great work from Ed Wynne on the guitar.

There is still one useless and reggae-ish type of song, but this is a great tradition of the band. You might well press the next key to avoid some pitiful minutes (six or so). Fortunately, it is almost forgotten with upbeat Kick 98, which is really kicking your ass. Excellent bass play and percussion is huge as well. It is a very dynamic track; one of the best of this Swirly Termination.

The closing track starts again on these reggae rhythms and I thought: gosh, here we go again for almost twelve minutes! Fortunately, these beats won't last for long and Yoy Mandela finally belongs to the top three of this album. The second half is particularly well polished. Again, the upbeat mood is combined with a superb guitar solo and some fine and heavy psychedelia.

I am rather pleased with this OT album. Not a masterpiece of course but a good album. Three stars.

To paraphrase an old Japanese proverb: You are a fool if you do not own an Ozric Tentacles album...but you are a worse fool if you own two.

Well, more fool me is all I can say, and I'm sure a lot of likeminded fans would agree. It's true that most Ozric albums are more or less interchangeable, each one shuffling the same combination of vigorous cosmic ragas and throbbing space-dub soundscapes. But the formula allows plenty of room for invention, and after almost a quarter-century (and counting) it can still be a fresh and invigorating experience.

The final Ozric album of the last Millennium is fairly representative, despite the lingering cloud of mystery around it (see previous reviews for details). Was the album really a haphazard compilation of incomplete older recordings, released without the band's permission? The Snapper Music CD lists no production credits, and includes no details about the musicians or instrumentation (the line-up listed on its page here at Prog Archives is strictly guesswork). The band apparently never promoted the finished product.

Too bad, because it contains some quintessential space jams, beginning with the punchy opener "Steep" (one of the band's strongest and yet most economical rockers) and continuing to the somewhat meandering but often compelling 12-minute cosmic improv "Voy Mandala". Other highlights include the pulse-pounding adrenalin rush of "Kick 98" (a dynamic update of "Kick Muck", from their 1990 debut LP "Pungent Effulgent"), and what may be the ultimate Ozric Tentacles trip, the aptly titled "Space Out": a minor classic of Eastern influenced guitar and synth psychedelia.

The album is only 45-minutes long, a bit stingy for digital music. And the lack of any official endorsement reduces it to a dwarf star in the larger Ozric universe. But if nothing else it's certainly a worthwhile primer for newcomers, and a windfall to all those dedicated fools who wouldn't ever think to stop at a single album.

Though released in the same year as The Hidden Step, Swirly Termination is perhaps best appreciated if one recalls that it wasn't recorded as a cohesive studio album, but instead consisted of a grab-bag of unreleased tracks put out by their former record label after a fraught parting of the ways. Later issues include comments from the band's manager suggesting that it's best seen as a followup to The Bits Between the Bits - the cassette release which put together a disparate range of tracks that didn't make it onto any of their other early cassette albums.

Seen in this light, Swirly Termination is easier to enjoy. Yes, it doesn't sound like what the Ozrics were doing in 2000, but that's because it's not from then - instead it's a brace of leftovers ranging from 1992 to 1998. But precisely because it's a disparate range of tracks of various origins, it does end up being a more varied trip than some Ozrics albums from this period. As such, what it loses on consistency it makes up for in variety and novelty, making it an intriguing release.

Ed Wynne and his Ozric friends are nearing the end of an era with this album. Though the music isn't sounding tired, it is feeling somewhat formulaic and repetitive.

1. "Steep" (3:12) the best song on the album for its fresh, pastoral world music take, great bass sound (and play) and great DAVE GILMOUR-like rock lead guitar. (9/10)

2. "Space Out" (8:28) what starts out with some promise turns sour with its disco drum beat. (17.375/20)

3. "Pyoing" (4:29) solid rock rhythm foundation with JLP synth weave over the top pans out to be nothing more than another Star Wars video game soundtrack. Not even Ed's inventive "Middle Eastern" electric guitar solo in the second minute can save this one--though the tightening of the bass and drums in the third minute is an improvement--as is the addition of the Petri Walli guitar play thereafter. The long drawn out finale also diminishes the powerful mid- section. (8.875/10)

4. "Far Dreaming" (5:24) a song made up of several threads that are kind of at odds with one another. Interesting but ultimately feeling more like an experiment in combining that fails to deliver the desired magic. (8.75/10)

5. "Waldorfdub" (6:13) another one of the boys' variations on the Reggae music. Though this song is interesting for its bare-bones exhibition of percussion, it is ultimately kind of boring. (8.6666667/10)

6. "Kick 98" (6:03) a nice PETRI WALLI/KINGSTON WALL opening guitar is diminished by the movement and reversion into more comfortable OT sounds and individual styles. (8.75/10)

7. "Voy Mandala" (11:52) a pretty good song with strong Southeast Asian representation is marred by the Jamaican Reggae bass play. Also, Conrad Prince's drum play here just struggles to fit with A) Zia Geelani's bass play and B) the rest of the music. The scond half is, however, a little better--once Zia leaves behind the Reggae bass lines and Conrad is able to sync up better. (21.75/25)

Total Time: 45:01

Despite the fact that I do love to hear the "real" instruments being played (as opposed to the computer-programmed tracks that will dominate the future albums (starting with Spirals in Hyperspace), my feeling is that the band in its current lineup, form, and orientation has "played itself out." I welcome the arrival of the next gen of musicians (Ed's kids) and the 21st Century computer engineering. Even the swan-song album of this lineup and form, the highly- acclaimed live album, Live at the Pongmasters Ball, feels more akin to these "end of the century" albums than it does to the "future" sound that Ed and family ignite in 2004.

B/four stars; a fine representative of the Space/Psychedelic sub-genre, just not up to creative and innovative standards of other OT albums.