ETHER OR

"Ether Or" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US Psychadelic/Space rock act Subarachnoid Space. The album was released through Unit Circle Rekkids in April 1997. Subarachnoid Space were founded in 1996 and were originally based in San Francisco, California. The debut album "Delicate Membrane" was released in September 1996, which means that there are only 8 months between the debut and "Ether Or".

"Ether Or" features 7 tracks and a total playing time of 54:36 minutes. Three of the tracks on the album exceed the 10 minute mark. All tracks are more or less intrumental psychadelic/Space rock jams. Think Hawkwind (without the sax and the keyboards) when they are most out there and noisy. The instrumentation is very basic with bass, 2 guitars and drums. There´s an almost rehearsal room like quality to the recordings where especially the sound on the drums lead my thoughts in that direction. I also hear a slight post rock vibe on the album. The music on the album are generally not easily accessible featuring lots of dissonance and unstructured playing. To my ears the music is in dire need of memorable hooks or anything catchy that I can hold on to or remember. Much of the time the jamming sounds directionless and quite frankly pointless.

The fact that the rehearsal room sounding production is amaturish, murky and noisy doesn´t exactly help on my impression of the album either. Listeners who adore jams that go on and on without reference points, played by sloppy musicians and packed in a amaturish sound production might enjoy this, but personally I find it a trial to get through and a 1.5 star (25%) rating is warranted.