STARDUST RITUALS

Solid four stars of modern Kosmische Musick--containing one of the musical highpoints of the year in the nearly-23- minute epic, "(You Will) Live Forever Now." I hope to discover more of Sula Bassana's future compositions measuring up to that one!

1. "The Loop" (8:06) a simply constructed two chord exodus set up with organ, bass, drums, and guitar strums which are intended to provide the foundation for the heavily distorted vocal. The singer's pleasant voice sounds as if he's singing to you through bong water. At the end of the fourth minute the volume rises and there is a major shift in the music to a more hard-driving trip into hyperspace with heavily effected organ and keys representing our mode of transportation. Even with the shift, this song never really sucks me in like the fourth song. It's okay if you like RAY MANZAREK/THE DOORS jams. (8/10)

2. "Stardust (The Picture)" (10:13) opens as a straight-time, two-note plodding monster. Higher pitched vocals-- heavily treated, as usual--enter in the second minute. Then pitch-modulated "white noise" guitar play. The song really congeals at the end of the third minute. Multiple tracks of the "white noise" guitar begin to weave around and within each other. Pretty cool! (9/10)

3. "Astral Hitch Hike" (4:40) simple drums (lite cymbols and rim shots), bass, and sitar tracks open this one. Bass, drums and sitar slowly ramp up with the bass and sitar repeating their singular riffs over and over. Sitar drops off as intermittent echo-effected percussive hits to an electric guitar appear. The sitar melody riff returns for the final 40 seconds. Okay. Never really hooks one nor goes anywhere. (8/10)

4. "(You Will) Live Forever Now" (22:40) an amazing prog epic that starts slowly, like an ELECTRIC ORANGE or MY BROTHER THE WIND song, with a very New Age/Indian sound coming from hand percussives, electric bass, sitar, and gentle drumming, before settling into a steady and very engaging groove with a foundation that sounds amazingly like the musical base for ROBIN TROWER's jam at the end of his timeless song "Bridge of Sighs" at around the 4:10 mark. This moment coincides with the entrance of some dreamy, trippy vocals and keyboards and just before the advent of the electric guitarist's arrival. For the next minutes, it's just a slowly building, smooth ride on the cosmic sea of a great groove. At the end of the ninth minute the guitar chooses to go raunchy/heavy distortion just before the return of multiple ethereal voices. These haunting, lilting voices continue into the twelfth minute as the guitar slowly amps up his attack. By the time the thirteenth minute rolls around you know that all band members--bass, drums, vocalist and electric guitarist--are fully locked in and charging ahead with all cylinders firing. At 13:30 the guitar switches effects to more of a screaming feedback-responding screech, scratch, and squeal. Adrian Belew would be so proud! As we cross into the sixteenth minute a descending bend in the guitarists sustained note brings us into a quiet section. Everybody is tiptoeing now. Soft, peaceful, yet the groove is still there. At the 17-minute mark begin some signs that we'll be returning to high volume: guitar strums, the return of vocals, and, eventually, cymbol crashes and MELLOTRON! The glorious, timeless, essential Mellotron. The bass pulses, vocals haunt, drums pound, and 'tron shows us the light--until the guitar begins to seer us with its fire over the final minute and a half. Amazing! Beautiful! You know you've got a great song when all you want to do is get up and move and pretend that you're one of the trance players in the song! (10/10)

Thanks to Mellotron Storm for the heads up on this one. I had a great time playing the awesome 23-minute epic on my radio show last night--a real emotional highpoint. I've really enjoyed getting to know Sula Bassana's repertoire over the past year. Keep it up!