SHIMMER INTO NATURE

The somewhat disappointing news - multi-instrumentalist Ed Wynne's 2019 debut solo album `Shimmer into Nature' (Coolest. Title. EVER!) kind of just sounds like most Ozric Tentacles albums. But the good news - it sounds just like most Ozric Tentacles albums! In other words, while it may not really hold too many surprises, it still offers a series of cool spacerock/psych instrumentals that are full of colour, and that dart in multiple directions at all times. It's instantly identifiable as Ed's musical personality, and tasty contributions from a couple of Ozrics-related associates help give the album a vibrancy that some of the later programming-heavy band albums missed out on.

Opener `Glass Staircase' sets much of a template for the LP, a slice of chilled electronica with stuttering programmed beats and gurgling synth spirals that are constantly met by Ed's alternatingly ragged, jangling and fiery electric guitar runs. The thickly buoyant live bass on this one gives the track a real kick, and the brief ambient passages reveal the most fleeting hints of Manuel Göttsching's Ashra.

`Travel Dust's placid reggae flavours weave between dreamily trilling synths, spirited acoustic strums and ethnic-infused percussion, and `Oddplonk' is all phasing electronics and slinking grooves around permeating eastern atmospheres. The flip-side's `Shim' is further electric guitar-fuelled electronica, but it's the ten-minute `Wherble' that makes for a closing farewell of everything the album does well. Blissful and joyful, a mellow reprising fanfare glides unhurriedly before breaking into a skittering electronic breakdown with wild guitar tantrums and even the lightest of bluesy smoulders.

Running a lean single vinyl-length forty-two minutes ensures `Shimmer...' is easy to replay, and it definitely lacks the bloat that plagued several of the last few Ozric Tentacles albums. With that group currently M.I.A, only time will tell if the band name is permanently laid to rest or not, but if so, on the strength of this debut, Ed's `Shimmer into Nature' promises to still carry on in their technicolour psychedelic tradition, as well as being a focused and punchy psych-electronic disc ideal for the Ozrics faithful and even curious newcomers all its own.

Four stars.