PUNGENT EFFULGENT

This recording signals Ozric Tentacles' arrival to their musical mature age; after years of nurturing and developing their own strategic combination of jazz-rock, ethno-pop, trance, prog, fusion, and electronic psychedelia, you can tell by paying close attention to what you can hear in the "Pungent Effulgent" repertoire that this combo has conquered their own territory in the world of contemporary popular music. The instrumental ensemble works as a unit where all sounds are perfectly interconnected. The firs two tracks 'Disolution (The Clouds Disperse)' and 'O-1' are catchy and energetic enough to capture the listener's attention at once, and actually they turn out to be quite emblematic of the OT-paradigm, real OT classics. The ultra-cosmic ambience portrayed in 'Phalarm Dawn' serves as an appropriate interlude to 'The Domes of G'Bal', a reggae-inflicted number. 'Shaping the Pelm' persists on this combination of exotic airs and electronic modern sounds: so, tracks3-5 are mostly sonic portraits that aim towards the relaxing and contemplative, marking off a notable contrast against the exhilarating energy displayed in the first two pieces. But the frantic excitement are not gone forever: in fact, 'Ayurvedic' makes it come back with a vengeance, exploring in a mixture of "You" era Gong influenced jamming and white techno-reggae. The same Gong-based thing goes on with 'Kick Muck', if a bit fierier. Once again things get back to the realm of cosmic reflectiveness in the Hindu- inspired 'Ago in the Ether'. The album's official closer 'Wreltch' starts with a very ethnic driven section, too, then turns into an incendiary rock jam, among the late 60s psychedelic stuff and your regular hard rock. The bonus track 'Ayurvedsim' is basically a different, early version of 'Ayurvedic', taken from one of those early cassettes that inaugurated OT's discography back in the mid 80s. As I stated at the beginning of this review, the mayor significance of "Pungent Effulgent" consists of being OT's first consistent musical statement regarding the perspective of their entire discography: but in itself it also makes an amazing experimental rock item that would make a good entry in any good prog collection, since it's full of attractive ideas and effective performances. Mark: 3 ½ to 4 stars!