Music makes me happy. This music, hugely so.
A great human once wrote:
I am a recent convert to the quirky charms of Ozric Tentacles, they were far too associated with the crusty movement over here in the early 90’s to pique my picnic at the time, but now I’m a touch less dogmatic and their unique riveting together of dance and psych and folk and prog and ambient and occasional shooting star guitar, really ruffles my truffles. The Ozric’s Jurassic Shift was one of my very favourite old-new discoveries of last year. I love owning Sploosh! and a hunk of that is down to the fact that there is no hippy dippy whimsy hereabouts at all, this is music with a purpose.
Welcome to Jurassic Shift, an instrumental record that gets pretty heavy rotation here at 1537 Towers. I love this LP from it’s quaintly daft wizardly cover onwards.
It’s a smooth listen too, the Ozrics glide effortlessly through their paces from the keyboard rills and trills of ‘Sunhair’ on to the surprising heavy guitar bang-out of ‘Vita Voom’. It is this blending and absorption of all sorts of styles into a coherent, seamless whole that is so bloody impressive, the whole vibe is like looking out through a window at fantastical ever-changing scenery beyond; one moment magical mountains, the next deep space, and on and on.
The musicianship is impressive as hell, lead Ozric Ed Wynne is a superb guitarist, adept at switching up from playing very little on a track to taking charge of proceedings somewhat in the manner of a jazz soloist* stepping up to the mic. The rhythm section is every bit as impressive, Roly Wynne and Zia Geelani propel the whole of Jurassic Shift forwards with their bass sound, which is I think what distances Ozric Tentacles from so many proggy instrumentalists and allies the whole sound to, if not the dancefloor, then the dance scene. Add in Merv Pepler, who must have more arms than Vishnu to play some of his parts, keyboard/atmospherics wizard Joie Hinton and John Egan’s occasional flute and you have a seriously talented group.
Everything seems to have coalesced beautifully for Jurassic Shift in 1993, the band I assume self-produced the LP as no producer is named at all. With a couple of minor missteps, I’m still not keen on the tone of ‘Stretchy’ the production is almost perfect – clear, detailed and warm, it’s a very good trip.
Special mention must go to the heavy dub sounds underpinning ‘Feng Shui’, leading us on gently into the rotating knives of the thrash punk guitar freak-out finish; always a winning combo. The low-level bass and percussion monster that is ‘Pteranodon’ is also something to reckon with when listened to in a darkened room.
All in all Jurassic Shift is a trip, as in journey, obviously. I really like the way it pushes forwards constantly, this is caffeinated impatient young music not ye olde ambiente progge landscapes of yesteryear; despite being built on and shaped by it. Steve Hillage is a very good touch point (see below for remixing duties) and he has also played with the band at times. I also love the occasional heavier touches here and there, they act as a guy rope for me, it’s always important to make sure the wizard’s tent is well tethered.
My copy of Jurassic Shift is not some time-served battered copy which has been skinned-up on by all and sundry back in the day at a free festival on the outskirts of Tewkesbury. I own a German pink vinyl 2013 reissue which comes with a bonus 12″ of remixes. It is a wonderful sounding LP too.
Bonus 12″? The remix of ‘Sunhair’ by System 7** is an absolute BELTER transforming it into a dancefloor stormer, without losing an ounce of guitar heft, one of the best examples of a good transformative dance remix I can think of. The Hallucinogen mix of ‘Pteranodon’ sounds like something menacing crawling from a sub-sonic trash compactor, which I mean in an entirely complimentary way.
Buy Jurassic Shift I have fully road-tested it over the years, it sounds great with your morning coffee, excellent on a rainy afternoon and ace at night with the lights off.
1090 Down.
PS: Original copies of Jurassic Shift apparently had covers made entirely from tree-free hemp paper. I wonder how many got smoked up?
*opener ‘Sunhair’ is a particularly good example of this, at about 4 minutes in he really steps on the gas.
**Hillage and Miquette Giraudy.
I have one album of theirs (Strangeitude) and I know exactly of what you speak!
I don’t imagine there’s a vast amount of difference across the LPs. I love their sound though.
It’s unique and I love it too! I don’t see them often in the wild.
Completely new to me and I am not sure my cup of tea. But nice album cover and graphics.
Cup of tea? Limey!
Im liking this. A lot.
There is a lot to like here CB.
Aaah the tentacles of ozric. I remember them well I even own some albums.
Haha, you spelled ‘testicles’ wrong!
I’ve not ventured further than this one and a 12″ single. I wonder whether I need to? I would totally recommend this one on vinyl.
Oh yes, my man. Roll me up and warm me cockles, I love the Ozrics.
I get that, haven’t you got the cornflakes box packaged one? I only really know this LP, but I absolutely love it. Great guitarist.