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Topic ClosedOzric Tentacles release Technicians of the Sacred
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 17:54
^^ Sorry - I disagree.
TotS is an Ed Wynne solo, every note on this album could be done by Ed himself, and very much sounds like it. There's very little 'band' on this release. Sure, they're probably still the quintessential Space-Prog act on stage, but in the studio......
Maybe I have cotton-wool in my ears, but it mostly sounds like fake-bass and programmed drums/percussion to me. And that fact rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps if it was offered as " Debut solo album from Ozric mastermind " I'd view it differently, but this is supposedly a collective. I don't hear team spirit on this album........
And now I'm going to spin Sl*g Tanz, where I can hear REAL drums and REAL bass.......
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 18:00
Maybe that's the problem for you, Tom....the Ozrics `project' (let's just call it that) have moved on well and truly from that fusion of sounds of the earlier albums. We really should have seen this coming. It's gradually been evolving into a more electronic project for some time now, for better or worse, depending on your music tastes - I'm going with MUCH WORSE in your opinion!

Yes, in many ways it's a shame, but I think there's still plenty that captures the true Ozrics sound in it, and they haven't sounded so modern and focused for some time.
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 18:24
^ Well, maybe too modern.
Cast your thoughts to Waterfall Cities. Superb album. Only 2 full band tracks (Coily and Sultana Detrii), the rest, mostly programmed. Check out the fake-bass in Spiralmind, and the title-track is just bliss. This had those trance/techno/ravey elements working to their strengths. It had 'soul'.
TotS has all human quality sucked out of it, something like music of the future, programmed by robots and computers which have been programmed by robots and other computers. I don't hate the album. I don't really enjoy it, either. It's frustrating. And like I mentioned earlier, Paper Monkeys, though being one of the lowest rated OT albums here, is way better. Why Ed included his family on TotS, other than to get familiar with the material for live performance, escapes me.
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 21:01
Well, Tom, we can always fall back on THIS little beauty (matter of fact, I'm spinning it right now! ), the Ozrics sound done right, and better than anything they've done since `The Hidden Step'...and probably worthy of praise as much as the classic Ozrics albums?

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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 21:09
^ Now you're talking. Still, the drums sound a little thin, but at least they're REAL drums. It does have some programmed parts, sometimes these parts are IMPOSSIBLE to play when they're transcribed for 'real' instrumentation, but this, Mantric Muse, also Hidria Spacefolk, really pick up the baton where the OT that means so much to me, left off.
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 21:18
You know that shreddy 80's Satriani/Vai-ish (well that's how it sounds to me!) guitar style in the heavier parts of the Ozrics albums has always been the sticking point for me personally, Tom, so I think I much prefer the guitar on the MM disc.

Mind you, putting things in perspective, MM have delivered one single album, and the Ozrics many....but WHAT an album

Edited by Aussie-Byrd-Brother - August 01 2015 at 21:19
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2015 at 22:37
Y'know, some artists I admire deliver, what I perceive as 'weaker' albums (well, 4626 Comfortzone from Beardfish seems to be an example), but it doesn't bother me coz they never really 'get me' deep inside. Ozrics are (should be these days) a band I expect high quality efforts from, so when they go all 'plastic' on me, I feel like I'm let down. Now, I know Ed doesn't put out sh*t to "please Tom, gotta please Tom"......(I'm a fanboy, I should grow up.....) but this direction of almost pure electronic Ozric is not the side of them I cherish. And the overall production is an over-polished electro-turd. Oh well, still plenty of back-catalogue to enjoy.
I even prefer the Lonely Robot album, as commercial as it is. At least there's real drums and real bass on it. And Nick Beggs, somewhere.
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Points: 1 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2015 at 18:56
Re some of the comments above, pretty much agree with Tom Ozric  on this one.

Ozrics used to be a lot more interesting and unique than something you could put a generic genre label on, like 'Psytrance'. Compared to the 90's this sounds quite uninspired and lacking the kind of powerful production they were capable of.  Not surprisingly I didn't like Paper Monkeys or YYT either, but I think this is the weakest album yet.

It's not just that it lacks a solid rhythm section and dynamics, or that it's 'too electronic' (not really how I would put it anyway, and I enjoy plenty of 'electronic' music). The problem is also that the compositions just aren't what they used to be.

There's still some nice atmospheres and fantastic synth layering as you would expect, but the context is so off-putting that I just can't listen to it. Some of the better moments sound too much like re-hashes of what's been done better before.








Edited by AlienD - August 15 2015 at 19:02
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Points: 3126 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 02:46
Well, the Ozrics have always been somewhat homogenous, there's not that much difference between any of their albums really.  However they're pretty much always a good listen, depending on my mood.  A couple of times the new one has washed over me a bit but generally I'm enjoying it.  In fact I enjoy them all, not a turkey amongst them.

Yes I'd agree that ToTS is more electronic than most of their previous releases but definitely not as much as Spirals In Hyperspace - I consider that to be easily their most electronic album.  It also has one of my all-time favourite OT tracks, the blissful Oakem.  
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Points: 305 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 05:24
I don't really understand the criticism. The album is totally enjoyable and has a nice flow to it, more than some of the older albums. Still the OT trademarks are there, the arabic folklore on Epiphlioy for example. By the way Paper Monkeys was also great.
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Points: 114 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 05:30
I think Ozric Tentacles were best in the 90's.
Master James of St. George.
Of the fields and the sky.
He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood.
But lines get broken down.
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 06:10
^ Correct !!
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 07:00
Ideedio!

....and while they haven't quite reached the heights of Erpland and Waterfall Cities in the new millenium - I still think they can hold their heads high with this their most recent. I happen to dig the Psytrance ingredient - even if it is on the account of the bass.....but then again that bass isn't doing much anyway. I just had a listen trying to focus on the bottom end of the sound spectrum.

Hey Michael: I listened to Mantric Muse yesterday, and it is indeed a very nice album in the vein of (90s) Ozrics. These days I tend to reach for Hidria Spacefolk if I want some brainmelting psychedelia (that really imo started with Steve Hillage)....oh yes and then Vespero's By The Waters Of Tomorrow. Man that album is great!



Edited by Guldbamsen - August 18 2015 at 07:00
“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

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Blacksword View Drop Down
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Points: 16130 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2015 at 09:46
Looks like everything else they've done. I'll still give it a whirl though. Good band.

I found their set at the 1993/94 (?) Reading festival on Youtube the other day. I was at that show. They were awesome, and Siouxsie & the banshees were on later, so it was a bloody good day.
Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2015 at 06:21
Lately, when I've gone to bed, I've been using this album to doze off to. I never make it to track 2 !! Either it's that blissfully serene and spacey it puts me to sleep, or just boring. I haven't decided.
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chopper View Drop Down
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Points: 20031 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2015 at 06:23
Originally posted by Tom Ozric Tom Ozric wrote:

Lately, when I've gone to bed, I've been using this album to doze off to. I never make it to track 2 !! Either it's that blissfully serene and spacey it puts me to sleep, or just boring. I haven't decided.

I'd go for the former, I find it quite relaxing. DSOTM normally has the same effect on me and I like the album.
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