PHASE V

MUSIC IS MATHEMATICS MADE AUDIBLE': BOETHIUS (480-526).... * SEPTEMBER 18th 2005 * 35007 * NEW ALBUM * PHASE V * JUST NUMBERS AND SOUND. NO WORDS NO IMAGES. PHASE V IS AN INTERMEDIATE STATE. NO PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION IN FORESEEABLE FUTURE. TIME WILL TELL WHAT THE NEXT PHASE WILL BE.....

This is what the official website says to launch the new and unfortunately the last album of this spacey band. We are still waiting for the next phase.

The track titles are just made of numbers. One may think that they are times of the day, but 44:05 is possible only since Jupiter to above. Put together they are like a matrix but the last track title doesn't fit. Let's quit with mathematics and move to music now.

This album is not very different from Liquid. The first track is very similar to Tsunami, with a repetitive theme made of powerful keyboards, drums,bass and guitar. Just to give you an idea think to Ozric Tentacles with a touch of Pink Floyd of the Meddle period. There's not the explosion of Tsunami but the second track opens really powerful so it's an explosion itself. Respect to the previous albums there's no longer the hard rock of the debut and there's less psychedelia than on the following ones. Effectively I could think to be listening to the Ozric Tentacles and this is the limit of this album: it sounds like a clone.

Luckily the things change with the third track. A chord of distorted guitar (or is it a bass?) makes the base. The tempo is slow. If you mentally replace this sound with a bass playing the same note alternating the octaves it would sound like Careful With That Axe Eugene, only more powerful and without screams.

The fourth track is slower and a bit more spacey. The guitar makes a good work. With a bit of fantasy I can hear echoes of Porcupine Tree, but the guitar is old-fashioned. This is the only true psychedelic track, bluesy and acid. More of this stuff, please.

The title of the last track should mean that this is the union of two different songs. However it starts with a harping of clean guitar, a crescendo of drums electric guitar and finally organ. The sound of the organ made me think to Niacin at the first listen, and effectively this bluesy song sounds very similar.

In brief the first half of the album doesn't reach the 3 stars, but the last two tracks deserve more than 4, so my final rating is three. If I could limit my review to the last two tracks I would speak of an excellent example of psychedelic rock. During my review I have mentioned some bands. Fans of them should like this album as well.