Album Title: Erpland
Artiste: Ozric Tentacles
Nationality: English
Year: 1990
Subgenre: Space Rock, Instrumental
Player(s): Ed Wynne (Guitar, Synths, Production), John Egan (Flute), Roly Wynne (Bass), Paul Hankin (Percussion), Mervin Pepler (Drums), Steve Everett (Sampling) and Marcus Carcus (World music stuffz)
Familiarity: One of my favorite bands of all time.
Favourite track(s): Eternal Wheel, A Gift Of Wings
Why? Atmospherics galore, plus all those sumptuous synth textures and trippy jammin' chord progressions.
Least favourite track(s): They're all good!
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? I've been familiar with these guys pretty much forever, but back when I was first getting into the band I was expecting hard psychedelia or something.
Factoids you'd like to share? They're one of the most successful "indie" bands of all time, having sold millions of records without the help of a major label.
End impression: An absolute classic. All of the Ozrics stuff up until the late 90's is perfect, and this one's a belter for sure.
Comments: Some people say that once you've heard one Ozrics album you've pretty much heard them all, but that's not really fair: nobody sounded like them from the time they were founded in the mid 80's and up until 1995's
Become The Other, I would have told you they were the best instrumental jam band of all time. Anyway, there's a rather novel/unique synthesis of sounds and ideas on these early albums. No other outfit has ever had a foot in rave culture, old school psych/space rock stuff and progressive rock simultaneously, and nobody has since either. They've got elements of House, Reggae and even New Age all over their stuff too, but there's still enough blinding axework from Ed Wynne to win over even the grumpiest proghead.
Erpland isn't the best Ozrics record (that award goes to
Jurassic Shift or maybe their debut
Pungent Effulgent) but some of their best cuts are here for sure. Plus all their early album covers...man, they're just awesome.
Rating: 5 Partly because the album is really good, but also because nobody sounded like the Ozrics from '85-'95 either.
