Aural Innovations — October 2012

Øresund Space Collective — Give Your Brain a Rest from the Matrix

(Space Rock Productions 2012, SPR007, CD digipack 500 copies)

Pat Albertson

Since being formed by Dr. Space (aka Aural Innovations' own Scott Heller) in 2004, Oresund Space Collective have been recording and touring at an amazing rate, with Give Your Brain a Rest from the Matrix being their 14th proper release, although the number of limited edition releases using one format only (such as the vinyl-only Entering the Space Country and Phaze Your Fears from 2011 and 2012 respectively) make it hard to keep track of just what is out there.

This CD release (limited to 500 copies only, although possibly to be released as a double LP at some future point) was recorded at the same session - Sept 26th 2010 - that produced Space Country and Fears. To find another instance of just one single session producing enough material for three different albums, one would have to go back to the legendary Amon Duul session of 1968, which birthed several rather unlistenable albums. Fortunately, the four lengthy tracks on Give Your Brain a Rest from the Matrix contain far more musical depth than the acid-drenched communal noodlings of the original Amon Duul.

A true collective, rather than a band as such, Oresund have featured over 30 different musicians in their line-up, most of whom have connections to other Scandanavian/European spacerock ventures. For example, Matrix features First Band from Outer Space guitarist Johan Dahlstrom on one track, and Secret Saucer synth-player Steve Hayes on another. However, by far the most notable guest contribution comes from Siena Root's enigmatically-named KG, whose sitar is all over much of this album. No stranger to the OSC family, KG provided sitar-stylings on 2009's Good Planets Are Hard to Find, probably the closest touchstone for Matrix in the Oresund back catalogue.

If, as stated in the sleeve notes, Give Your Brain a Rest from the Matrix is all about unplugging from the soulless and potentially isolating technologies of the internet, smartphones and headphones which block out the "real" world, the opening track serves as a mighty call to... let go, relax and drift! A lengthy ambient-folksy sitar/guitar intro sets the mood, and the music seems to almost hold its breath for five minutes in anticipation before tabla-style percussion, guitar, bass and synths bring in a gentle groove, which flows across the remaining 20 minutes. This is definitely "world" music, although the world in question may not be Planet Earth. First Band's Johan provides bluesy guitar on Mainstream is the New Acid, probably the most "conventional" (if such a word can be used in the worlds of OSC) track on the album, which includes a cracking guitar solo around the ten minute mark.

Sitars make a return on the nine minute Step into the Other World, while gentle waves of guitar (courtesy of Claus Bohling and Mathias Danielsson) break against eastern shores. The interweaving patterns of guitar and sitar make this otherworldly invitation a most inviting one. Insistent bass and drum grooves give Cerebral Massage (the twenty-seven minute album closer) more of a rock feel, enhanced by KG's bubbling and swirling Hammond organ, and stabs of wailing guitar. After a brief breakdown session about halfway through, the driving guitars and Hammond return for the most spacerocking section of the album.

The relaxing and terrestrial nature of much of the music on Give Your Brain a Rest from the Matrix means that this album might not be an ideal point of entry for anyone searching for spacerock sounds in the OSC catalogue (2007's The Black Tomato would probably be the ideal place to start), but it does provide a welcome, if temporary, respite from the relentless encroachment of 24/7 information technology into the world of the listener.

Visit the Øresund Space Collective Bandcamp site.

Book Of Shadows — Cosmos-Mother

(Instincto Records 212, INO-049)

Jerry Kranitz

I've reviewed nearly 20 albums by Austin, Texas based Book Of Shadows over the past decade and I must say they're one of the more enjoyable bands to review because they are so confoundedly difficult and, consequently, fun to write about. I've always avoided attaching any labels to these folks because they incorporate so many different genres, elements, etc into their music. It's space-ambient, psychedelic, avant-garde, industrial, sound exploratory, and Book Of Shadows nearly always seamlessly fuse the various elements they're working with.

On their latest effort - Cosmos-Mother - Book Of Shadows serve up 11 tracks, each including between 3-6 musicians, with the constants being founders Carlton and Sharon Crutcher (AI readers may remember Carlton as a founding member of ST37). The set opens with Moon Pie, a wild mash of machine shop aggression, Sharon's ethereal space chants, guitar effects, and trippy recorder soloing, and a bit of harmonica at the end.

Your Reflection and Alchemist seem to occupy some ambient-space-industrial realm, with a great combination of effects, noise and floating space, and the former being held down by a hypnotic repetitive bass line. Stardust Faded is a dark, slightly orchestral, hallucinatory piece with a bit of psychedelic Morricone spaghetti western theme. Spider Jones features slowly strumming acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and Sharon's vocals. As the music progresses the acoustic guitar takes some interesting detours, and windswept electronic effects are introduced, which get increasingly spacey and freaky, making for some pretty wild contrasting elements that somehow go together pefectly.

Pendulum is possibly the only Sharon-less Book Of Shadows track I've heard. It's got FOUR guitarists (plus Carlton on keys), though you wouldn't know it just by listening. It's surprisingly sparse and subtle, with much of what they're focusing on being ambience and soundscape creation. Flora and Fauna has a beautiful light melody, and I thought the underlying freaky alien electronics and light percussion were a nice touch. Crickets And Tree Frogs is one of the most sound-experimental tracks of the set and made me feel like I was in a schizophrenic mixture of planetarium and nature preserve.

My two hands down favorites of the set were Falling Star and Skycycle The Stratosphere. The 21 minute Falling Star opens with a spaced out barren planet ambience, anguished, whining guitar licks, and atmospheric vocals. After a few minutes Sharon delivers a cosmic narrative. Taken as a whole, this is a killer combination of avant-soundtrack space ambience and mind-bending psychedelic drift. I was surprised to see this was created by just a trio version of Book Of Shadows - Sharon, Carlton on keys, and Jason Zenmoth on guitar, bass and electronics. Sharon returns to the narrative periodically and I think this is one of the few examples of extended text on a Book Of Shadows piece.

In summary, this is 21 minutes of seriously image inducing cosmic beauty. The 11 minute Skycycle The Stratosphere starts off with the sound of pouring rain, a dark symphonic rumble, and Sharon's ghostly space chants. Aaron Bennack's guitar at times reminds me of Dave Gilmour, and combined with the atmospherics brings to mind a spaced out avant-twisted take on Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Another beauty to close your eyes and be swept away with.

For more information, visit the Instincto Records Bandcamp site.

After so many reviews I decided it was time to learn more about Book Of Shadows and conducted the following email interview with Carlton and Sharon:

Read the interview!

Chickencage Experience — An Eggspoiltation Movie

(Nasoni Records 2012, CD+DVD/2-LP+DVD)

Jerry Kranitz

Chickencage Experience is a side project from the German band Polytoxicomane Philharmonie, or as the promo sheet states - "This is a collateral damage of the Polytoxicomane Philharmonie". Titled An Eggspoiltation Movie, this is a CD (or 2-LP) + DVD movie set, with music that is by no means 360 degrees from Polytoxicomane Philharmonie.

The music portion consists of 6 tracks and nearly 77 minutes of music. The promo sheets notes that "free improvisation was the need of the moment", and while improv is apparent, the music nearly always feels focused and with a clear sense of direction.

The Eternal End opens the set with dual female vocals combined in a singing and chanting style, like lady mullahs whipping the devout masses into a frenzy. The singers are Polytoxicomane Philharmonie's H.M. Fishli plus Austrian singer MichaeLa Flame. The music rocks hard in space, with intensely wah'd guitar blazing over a light Middle Eastern theme and propelled by a furiously rocking groove. At 9+ minutes the music transitions a bit, with organ and strings adding an orchestral Prog-Psych edge, my favorite part being a tug-at-the-heartstrings emotional segment that nonetheless includes some pretty trippy space guitar.

Lascivious Dungeon Tales serves up 10 minutes of atmosphere and mood creation, the entire track feeling like a deep space and totally freaky extended introduction to a larger piece. We've got 60s styled organ, atmospheric guitar colorings, and some of the most intense chanting vocals I've heard. The music twists and turns like a cross between Krautrock Kosmiche and early Pink Floyd, and it's not until nearly 8 minutes in that the drums and a sense of rhythm become noticeable, as the chanting continues unabated and the guitar starts to play strained cosmic licks, all leading to the finale.

Novelette Of Bitter And Sweet is a 17 minute cosmic caravan ride in which Chickencage Experience continue their theme of psychedelic mood and mind massage. I love the guitars on this track, with close attention paid to individual licks that speak volumes. Early in the track I was reminded me of The Spacious Mind at their most psychedelically spaced out, but as the music evolves, piano is introduced for dark intensity, and is a great contrast to the emotionally authoritative guitars. The singers are apparently improvising the lyrics, which sum it all up - "life's a journey, through the mind".

At over 17 minutes, The Owl, The Bell And The Club Of Veterans is another lengthy excursion. The band soar right out of the chute rocking, with great grooves, killer vocals that are both manic and seductive, and some of the most spaced out rocking guitar on the album. Yeah, the guitar is the clear leader for much of this lengthy hip shakin' number. Later in the track things calm down and the Experience transition to a more easy-paced psychedelic trek that once again reminded me of The Spacious Mind, though the near-possessed vocals put Chickencage Experience in a class all their own.

Ride Ridden Shine opens with the sound of a UFO landing, after which the Experience embark on what sounds like is going to be a psychedelic Blues jam. But the band quickly dispense with the Blues elements as the two vocalists freeform a bit and the guitar goes into space as it cranks out oscillating effects. But in no time we transition again and find ourselves in some kind of freaky carnival and chamber music theme. Once the band settles into a groove the ladies take the lead, again singing free-wheeling lyrics over quietly jamming and very beautiful psychedelically atmospheric music. Wrapping up the set is Homesick Tours, a cool combination of psychedelic Blues, Prog influences, trip guitar and space effects. The entire piece grooves along slowly and steadily, making for a captivating finale to the CD.

But... for the full audio-visual sensory experience you need to pop in the DVD. This professionally shot film begins with a parade of images and narration. Then The Eternal End is introduced and we hear the music and watch the band perform, with cool camera work closing in on individual band members and sometimes split screen action. And throughout the film these scenes alternate with transitional imagery + narration segments, all of which are creatively constructed and fun to watch.

So you can watch the movie, or, given that the DVD includes all the music from the album plus an additional 20 minutes for a total of 98 minutes, you can put on the DVD and enjoy it for the audio. However you experience it, An Eggspoiltation Movie is another outstanding project from the Polytoxicomane Philharmonie camp.

For more information you can visit the Nasoni Records website.

The Cosmic Garden — Sun Secrets

(Hypefactory Records, 2012)

Jeff Fitzgerald

The Cosmic Garden is the duo of Tibor Fredmann and Sigi Hümmer. Their debut full length CD (following the 2011 release of the EP Spirale), is a spaced out journey of improvised music. Between the two of them they play synths, Mellotron, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, strings, drums, percussion and voices.

Fredmann and Hümmer find a comfortable place right about midway between classic Krautrock style grooves and modern electronica rhythms (which were heavily influenced by Krautrock artists anyway) to form the backbone of their improvisations. From there they lay down some terrifically cosmic soundscapes. What makes them different from other bands of this style is that it's not all loosey goosey random spaciness. Fredmann and Hümmer focus on structure within their improvisations to give the music a semi-composed feel. And although the rhythmic aspects of the music are creative and interesting in their own right, the musicians remain focused on weaving melodic lines throughout them.

What also sets The Cosmic Garden apart from many other improvisational ambient/space artists is that every track on the album has its own distinctive feel. Their previous release, the EP Spirale, was a mostly laidback affair, though it did get dark on occasion, but it remained pretty much in ambient mode throughout. You know that Sun Secrets is going to be a bit different from the very start. Instellar Waves opens up fairly intensely with dangerous drones and wails, echoing voices and a sudden echoing guitar chord before it breaks into a driving, rhythmic odyssey into deep space.

Abstieg In Die Unterwelt takes you in the opposite direction. Descent Into the Underworld is roughly what it translates to, and it is, not unexpectedly, a dark and eerie piece of music. Layered drones shift and change as primitive percussion echoes throughout. But it constantly evolves, through serene, piano-like music to shivering dark soundscapes to haunting voices. It never gets boring.

From the intensely rhythmic Purpure Liquid Plejades (a reference to the first track on Tangerine Dream's Zeit album maybe?) to the spacious atmospheres of Munich 1969 - Summer of Love, the moods alter from one state to the next. In Love With Rosy Rosy (a nod to Ash Ra Tempel's Starring Rosi perhaps?) sounds like the lovechild of some lost experimental sci-fi movie soundtrack and some forgotten, early 90's ambient techno excursion.

Im Tal Der Eremiten (In the Valley of the Hermits), on the other hand, is a vast, ambient soundscape, full of mystery, from mist haunted hills to the depths of time and the cosmos. Where Have All the Flowergirls Gone is a bit lighter; still though, a journey into mutant electronica with some crazy soloing in it. And the final, brief Himalayan Space, not surprisingly combines East Indian sounds with angelic space voices, a gentle coming down after the weirdness of the previous track.

In short, there is some great music on Sun Secrets. Hints of exotic lands, myth and mystery collide with visions of interstellar realms. For lovers of Krautrock, ambient space music and experimental electronica, it is a feast for the ears. Check it out!

For more info, visit The Cosmic Garden Bandcamp site and The Cosmic Garden on SoundCloud.

Mechanik — You Yourself Are the Teacher & the Guru

(Self-released EP 2012)

T.H.U.M.B. — Primordial Echoes For Modern Bigfoots

(Go Down Records 2012, CD)

Jerry Kranitz

T.H.U.M.B. are an Italian Stoner-Psych trio who incorporate lots of spaced out effects into their songs. Primordial Echoes For Modern Bigfoots is the band's first new release since 2004's Lunar Flight EP.

Compositionally, the 12 songs on the album are pretty basic, but what gives T.H.U.M.B. their character is their raw, dirty sound, punky vocal style, and their use of effects. Songs like Monstergods and Superlover feature down 'n dirty spaced out Stoner Rock, with the latter song have especially cool tripped out guitar effects.

Wear It Out is similar but with a far more valium-like sludgy quality. Inconsistence starts off as a more straightforward rocker, though still packs a stoned punch and has some killer psyched out guitar. Either someone else is singing or the vocalist just changed his style for this song, which is more "normal" singing and lacks the raw, punky edge of the other tracks.

Road Song and Stonebridge Deluxe feature hip shakin' stoner rock 'n roll. Lived Namow goes in a completely different direction, being a 2 minute acoustic guitar and harmonica Blues tune. But as examples of deep space Stoner Rock my favorites of the set are Into The Deepest Green and Reaching The Afterglow. Both have great guitar effects, and Reaching The Afterglow goes totally Stoner Space Rock.

It rocks hard, has a good groove, brain candy psych guitar, and has the freakiest spaced out effects on the album. Lots of variety on this one. Overall a pretty good set. A few songs tended to meander too much, but when T.H.U.M.B. find the right combination of groove and effects, they're a hell of a lot more interesting than many of the contemporary stoner bands.

For more information you can visit the old but still available T.H.U.M.B. blog and the Go Down Records website.

There is one 2003 EP available on the T.H.U.M.B. Bandcamp site.

Pyramidal — Dawn In Space

(2011)

Jeff Fitzgerald

Pyramidal are a new spacerock band that hail from Alicante, Spain. And when I say spacerock, I mean SPACEROCK! These guys have it all, from the cosmic synths to the crunching guitar riffs to the touches of Middle Eastern modes. This is, indeed, spacerock in the purest sense. Mostly instrumental, there are only one or two tracks that have vocals, and those are very low in the mix. These guys are all about the music.

Opening cut, Intronauts is a short piece of spacey electronics with something that sounds like an exotic fairground in the distant background. It leads right into the heavy duty, 9-minute rocker, Black Land. This stuff reminds me of the brain pummelling tyranny of bands like Void Generator. In fact, Void Generator is not a bad comparison, but throw in a few more of those cosmic electronic space sounds for good effect.

Kosmic Blizzard is maybe even a little heavier than Black Land, and has some bluesy and Middle Easterny riffing going on in it. The title track continues the heavy riffing, but this time slows down in the middle of its 8 1/2-minute length for some spaced out guitar noodling before returning to the monster riffs. But it's a sign of things to come. What follows are the three longest tracks on the album.

The 10 1/2-minute Plastikleuten Parts 1 & 2 begins with a menacing low-key riff and some tribalesque drumming that slowly builds into the scorching rock of the second half... but even this takes an abrupt turn at 7 1/2-minutes in into a mesmerizing deep space exploration with layers of interstellar synth and freaky effects.

The 11-minute Tempel Iraru is the most Middle Eastern influenced track on the album, and perhaps the trippiest too, beginning with a somewhat mellower excursion into exotic guitar and space wind synths before kicking into another riffing rocker, with mystery monk chanting between the furious guitar solos. It even eventually showcases a lengthy drum solo (!) that whips the track up to its ferocious climax.

Mars Lagoon on the other hand, is a nifty bit of space funk with a Latin vibe to it, like something off Santana's Caravanserai album, but with a trippier overall feel to it. At any rate, it's got a great groove. It's ostensibly the longest track on the album, clocking in at 14 1/2-minutes, but it's interrupted in the middle, at about the 8-minute mark, by a perplexing 90 seconds of silence, before launching into a tasty Motorik jam with a lighter, distinctly Neu! kind of vibe to it. I think the idea here was to have a kind of hidden track, but it might have worked a little bit better if these two pieces were merged into one to make the final track a tighter 13-minute one.

Nonetheless, despite one little misstep, this is still a great slab of true spacerock. It's nothing overly groundbreaking or innovative, but it's still a solid album that will definitely please fans of the genre.

For more info, visit the Pyramidal Bandcamp site.

Black Science — An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever

(Dark Matter International 2012)

Jeff Fitzgerald

It's always a welcome thing to hear new, modern, refreshingly original, balls to the wall psychedelic space rock. An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever is the third album from Seattle's Black Science, and as far as that description in the previous sentence goes, it delivers in spades. It follow's 2008's A New Mastery of Light and 2010's Cosmodemonic & Beyond, expanding on the ideas and sounds on those albums by pushing the envelope even further with some truly scorching music that takes the listener into the far flung realms of another dimension.

Beginning with the idea that modern chaos magick is akin to the science of consciousness manipulation, Black Science infuses their music with occult and cutting edge scientific references. Structured and often quite catchy songs are shrouded in layers of effects. At times it gets very disorienting, yet there's always this solid song in the midst of it, always giving the listener something to hold onto.

Opening cut First Contact Manual is reminiscent of something Earthling Society might do, although I only make this comparison as a point of reference, for Black Science do have their own unique sound. A shivering haze of noise runs through the twisty guitar passages while affected vocals harmonize, singing of making first contact with another galaxy's hypnotic drug. The guitar solo at the end is a wild tripfest of sonic instrumentalism. Contrasting this is the bouncy pop nature of Easy Prey, which nonetheless still takes the listener into stranger territory with those disorienting effects, especially in the latter half, which dissolves into a liquid cosmic soundscape.

Third track Anywhere rocks harder, and piles the hallucinogenic layers on even deeper than before, but two of the most disorienting tracks on the album are the 8-minute mysterious and druggy The State of the Art, a dreamy slow burner that builds to a crazed, chaotic conclusion, and the pulsing rocker, Hardcore UFO's, which sounds a bit like Smashing Pumpkins meets Flying Saucer Attack in the Twilight Zone.

The crunchy, beat-oriented Exegisis leads us into the final nearly 16-minute voyage Our Sentence Is Up. This tour de force begins with a nearly metallic explosion of pounding rhythms and wailing, crazily riffing guitars, but eventually dives headfirst into a lengthy (supposedly psilocybin fuelled) jam that twists and turns upon itself as liquid synths bubble through it and John Ritzmann from the Paratopia podcast intones cosmic secrets into the ears of the listener. Terrific stuff!

An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever, released on the summer solstice of 2012, is supposedly "the first audio component of a ritual whose complete design will be revealed on the winter solstice" (which, incidentally, is the day that follows the end of the Mayan Long Count, supposedly the end of the world, or the beginning of a new age). What form that complete design will take, considering the band has apparently and sadly gone their separate ways, can only be speculated. In the meantime, we have this fantastic, freaky, tripped out album to rock to. And rock to it we will! Highly recommended!

For more info, visit the Black Science Bandcamp site and the Dark Mind International Bandcamp site.

Human Factor — 4.Hm.F

(R.A.I.G. 2012, R074)

Jerry Kranitz

Human Factor are a Russian quartet that formed in 2011 to create music intended to be a "contemporary instrumental crossover between space, progressive, and alternative rock". Across the 8 tracks on their debut CD, Human Factor combine these influences to varying degrees of success.

Revealing Secrets is a cinematic rocker with periodic electronics that give it a Space Rock edge, and keyboards that provide a Prog infusion. This segues smoothly into The Mist, a more or less straightforward rocker. It tries to shift gears a lot, though I think the "alternative rock" elements keep it from generating any real excitement. Things start to take off with Polaris, a high intensity Progressive Rocker with metal influences. Tika is a good tension builder that leads to a rocking explosion and includes a seductive melodic guitar solo.

For me, four of the eight tracks represent Human Factor's potential. Nearly half of the 8 minute Yellowstone has a tension building spacey atmospheric introductory feel. It's got a great melody and the dual guitars work together beautifully. Once it gets crankin' the band goes a bit metallic, but then closes with the spacey theme that opened the piece. Definitely one of the better examples of blending Space and Progressive rock. Stargazer is a high energy metallic Prog rocker with Ozric Tentacles styled electronics, a sci-fi keyboard melody, and even a brief jazz fusion bit. Now this is a really interesting blend of influences which Human Factor bring together seamlessly. A smoker!

Objects In The Mirror (are closer than they appear) takes a while to finds its way, but once it does it's a hot Space-Prog tune. Very powerful and majestic, and includes some cool mission control samples. Finally, Equilibrium opens with a heavenly spaced out ambience, shimmering guitar and rhythmically grooving percussion, before settling into a rocking groove with lots of both spaced out and Prog Rock keys. The guitar at one point has a Shoegaze feel, but later transitions to a spaced out metal sound. An excellent closing track and another outstanding blend of influences.

In summary, 4.Hm.F showcases a band with lots of possibilities. Half the album struggled to hold my attention, mostly due to a lack of compositional strength. But when Human Factor find the right combination of Space Rock, Prog and Metal elements, along with solid melodic hooks, they really shine.

For more information you can visit the R.A.I.G. Bandcamp site.

Dave Fuglewicz — Neptune

(self-released 2012)

Jerry Kranitz

Did you know that Neptune has 13 moons? And that Voyager 2 once tracked a "Great Dark Spot" on the planet with winds moving at 750 miles per hour? I couldn't resist strolling over to nasa.gov to read about the planet and gaze at pictures as the headphones pumped veteran hometaper Dave Fuglewicz's new album Neptune into my brain.

The album is, of course, inspired by the blue planet, with each track title showcasing different characteristics - Rivers Of Neptune, Deserts Of Neptune, Mountains Of Neptune - you get the idea. Neptune is an album of space electronica, but it's not just a standard set of floating mind-massage. Sure, there's plenty of that, but what made the experience interesting and compelling for me was the well-crafted pastiche of sounds and effects that Dave assembles around his core themes.

Like Rivers Of Neptune, with its mixture of howling, bubbling and various other sci-fi effects, bells, and machine-like sounds. There's lots going on, yet Dave strikes a solid balance, maintaining a floating atmospheric quality among the medley of sounds. Other highlights include Steppes Of Neptune, which has interesting contrasting elements that flow together well. The rising and falling, almost siren-like sound, along with racing and shooting effects creates a sense of urgency and intensity. There's also a robotic, bleeping, and somewhat melodic pattern, and I think I even heard some brief plinking guitar notes.

Deserts Of Neptune has a phased effect that caused a strange physical sensation in my head, prompted by electronic pulsations and made all the more disorienting by the hodgepodge of effects that surrounded it. Dawn Of Neptune has a calming ambience that I enjoyed, plus a bit of a symphonic quality, buzzing alien effects and even a mild periodic rhythmic pulse. Dave kicks the symphonics up several notches on Moons Of Neptune, pulling back on the melange of effects that have characterized the album thus far to focus on creating an uplifting heaven-in-space symphonic journey.

Storms Of Neptune and Mountains Of Neptune were among the more musical tracks of the set. On Storms Of Neptune Dave plays melodic patterns, which are surrounded by various spaced out effects, freaky noises and sounds. It has a dark and ominous feel, like some symphony for a distressed spacecraft. Mountains Of Neptune is similar, with a vague underlying melody and a church organ sound, that serves as the foundation for hissing atmospherics and effects, and there's also a melody played backwards that makes for a really cool contrast with the organ.

In summary, if you like electronic based space excursions but want something that demands your attention as opposed to music you can just drift along with, Neptune is for you.

For more information you can visit the Dave Fuglewicz page on archive.org where he has uploaded lots of music!

Dave Fuglewicz — The Wizard's Porch

(self-released 2012)

Jerry Kranitz

Electronics maestro and veteran hometaper Dave Fuglewicz first recorded The Wizard's Porch in 1996 as part of a collaborative project that fell through. Consequently, the recording sat until 2011 when Dave decided to add some finishing touches and release it as a solo effort. For the CD release of The Wizard's Porch, Dave decided to include both versions of the piece, the as-is 1996 version and the newer spiced up version, both of which clock in at 28 minutes (just a couple seconds difference between the two).

Starting with the 1996 version, the music is driven by a repetitive pulsating machine-like space drone, surrounded by bleeping, blurping alien noises, bird chirps, and what sounds like real bells. Throughout the piece I kept thinking this would be ideal as the effects/music that accompanies and supports various scenes in a sci-fi film. The first part marches along slowly but steadily, and has a dark claustrophobic feel that conjured up images of being stuck on the spacecraft in the first Alien movie. Then around the 11 minute mark the pace picks up and the space cauldron gets louder and more intense, with all manner of spaced out effects, and the bells providing an interesting contrast to the overall sci-fi theme.

If I were a proper reviewer I would conduct a close compare and contrast of the 1996 and currents versions. But I prefer to just surrender to them as one big space excursion and jot down impressions that the immersive experience inspires (or maybe I'm just lazy). Having said that, I can tell you that the repetitive pulsating machine-like space drone still functions as the core of the piece, and rather than feeling like I had taken the same journey a second time, just kept tripping along merrily for another 28 minutes (i.e., Part 2).

In summary, put on the headphones and experience some seriously image inducing outer-space brain candy.

For more information you can visit the Dave Fuglewicz page on archive.org where he has uploaded lots of music!

Stay — The Fourth Dimension

(Subterfuge Records 2012, 21918SUB)

Jerry Kranitz

Stay are a quartet from Barcelona, Spain who - though describing themselves as a space-rock band on the back of the album - play a killer brand of 60s inspired pop-psych. They've had a single and some compilation contributions for Fruits de Mer Records, so that alone should tell you a lot about them. The Fourth Dimension is their fourth album.

Songs like The Change Is Coming, Yellow Rainbows, In The Rain and Time Machine demonstrate the band's flair for tightly composed songs that include brief but awesome instrumental segments, excellent guitar-organ interplay, plus great melodies and lyrics.

The band is clearly influenced by The Byrds on All I Know, with its jangly guitars. Gone With the Sun has a distinctive Byrds/country quality. And Everything - dedicated to Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt - has an acoustic country feel.

Among my favorite songs of the set are You Got Me Wrong, with its raw, grungy, acidic guitar, and we're treated to a monster screaming, bubbling trip guitar solo. I really dig the ripping tripped out guitar break on Take Me Away. And ya gotta love the fuzz bass and power-driving groove of I Don't See Myself, which also includes a spaced out Doors-like segment.

The album was recorded in Liverpool and just released this month (September 2012). The recording quality and production are excellent, making a primo showcase for this talented band's songs and musicianship. Fans of 60s influenced psych songs with melodies that stick in your brain on the first listen will dig this for sure.

The Fourth Dimension is available in CD, vinyl and digital download editions. For more information you can visit the Stay website, the Stay Bandcamp site, and the Subterfuge Records website.