SYNANTHESIA

Rumoured to have been the backing band to DAVID BOWIE at some point along the succession to the Spiders from Mars, SYNANTHESIA was an acoustic trio that tends to get filed with the likes of other hippy dippy artists of their day. Synthesizing the kookiness of INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, the madness of COMUS, the whimsy of DONOVAN, the out there quality of TYRANNOSAURUS REX, and the acoustic anarchy of JAN DUKES DE GREY along with pretty much everything else they heard, in some ways they offer a more tasteful alternative to all of the above that their audience could appreciate stone cold sober. Unfortunately, in this their sole recorded output, a rigidity neuters even the mostly fantastical subject matter. While "Minerva", "Trafalgar Square", and the droning closer "Just as the Curtain Finally Falls" all could have been standards in luckier hands, too much of what is here just floats by inoffensively, which is a criticism so seldom leveled against, say COMUS! In the end, SYNANTHESIA's eminency remains tied to the insubstantial Bowie connection, and that doesn't speak well for their own independent and verifiable legacy.