Øresud Space Collective : Slip into the vortex (Transubstans
060).
I have been privileged to listen to the next Øresund Space Collective
release, who will be available to the public sometime in april 2010. The former
releases by the fantastic ØSC, have been completely improvised in the
studio and have all been excellent in this reviewers book. This time the guys
from ØSC have teamed up with some new people playing saxophone, drums
and bass giving them a more mature and complete sound, going a little away from
the jammy sound that they have presented on their previous releases. Their earlier
releases have been in the space rock category with obvious inspiration from
the finnish masters of spacerock Hidria Spacefolk and the spacy releases from
Gong. On this their newest release they are going in new directions towards
a more progressive sound, which in my humble opinion is absolutelly excellent
and a really really good way to go. If you decide to get your hands on "Slip
into the vortex" (which i only can recommend that you do), you will be
presented for 6 tracks with some new ideas and directions in the music, but
still being true to their earlier releases and sound. My favourite track on
the cd is the nearly 26 minutes long "Mothership machinery" which
is a number that evolves and grows on you complete with slide guitar and saxophone
- amazing. As you probably all ready have guessed i think this release is very
good one and it should have its place in every progressive music fans collection,
or every other music collection for that matter. I am looking very much forward
to the next releases and the future of this amazing band. Take a trip into space
with Øresund Space Collective - you will not be disappointed !!!
Reviewed by Henrik Kaldahl, Jazz/Prognet Denmark
http://jazznet-dk.blogspot.com
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Øresund Space Collective: Slip into the Vortex
Transubstans Records (Transubstans 060)
Transubstans offers us a new CD by Danish-Swedish psychedelic space-improvisation group Øresund Space Collective. I think that the Psychotropic Zone readers or those who have visited our club don’t need more specific introduction to this band. The seventh official OSC release was recorded at Black Tornado Studios in 2008 at the same sessions that earlier this year gave birth to the collective’s amazing, first vinyl album Dead Man in Space (that is almost sold-out everywhere so hurry up if you still need it for your collection!). During those sessions the loose line-up featured also The Univerzals saxophone player and also one of the two bass players (both from Carpet Knights) was new while Bland Bladen’s Anders G. has played drums on many early OSC jam sessions. You couldn’t really guess from the totally improvisation-based music that they are in the studio with the band for the first time since the playing is so fluent and flowing for most of the time. On guitars we’ve got the seasoned member Magnus (Mantric Muse) as well as another old friend Stefan (ex-Gas Giant, Sumo Sun) and on synthesizers and keyboards the only steady OSC members Dr. Space and Mogens.
This album includes six tracks varying in length from six plus minutes to almost 25. First we have the ten-minute-long, a bit funky ”I Teleported to Acapulco” that is wacky, strange and groovy going. The band still sort of hold back the tension in this one. Then comes the album’s longest track ”Mothership Machinery” that at first combines the pleasantly jazzy going with for example slide guitar. Before the eight-minute-marker the jam gets heavier and the Ozric Tentacles styled rhythmical synthesizer patterns give it a nice form while the great space sounds lift the listener to heights. Towards the end the atmosphere gets a bit looser again and the saxophone gets more room. Sax is perfect for the band’s music, by the way! ”Fondle the Frequency” is a quite softly spacey and percussive number that also has some jazzy mood. The album’s best track in my opinion is the over 18-minute-long ”Slip into the Vortex” where after the more peaceful, psychedelic atmospheres the band finally gets to real tight, fast and hard space rocking. By now, if not earlier, the synapses start to pop and pulsars throb… This is really wild going where the guitarists truly freak out! This is the kind of stuff that you’d like tp hear more during the OSC live gigs as well. “Sonic Snake” is a nicely swinging improvisation in ¾ beat and has some great solo guitar among other things. A very pleasant piece. The CD is finished with its shortest track ”Lord of Slumber” that is a slow, pretty melancholic piece and its chord changes bring to mind Hawkwind’s “Golden Void”. This one has an amazing atmosphere and it is a great ending for this really good album that is also available as a download.
www.oresundspacecollective.com
06.08.10 by Dj Astro
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Øresund Space Collective
Slip Into the Vortex (2010)
03|08|2010 [23:33:45] Florent Simon This collective of Copenhagen native professional
musicians regularly checks into the studio to give birth to totally improvised
musical textures, which enables them to publish post-production free albums
within a remarkably short amount of time. For this seventh album, recipe hasn't
changed a bit: a twenty-four minutes six track record of delicious psychedelic
scent, tripping progressive musics with an after taste of Pink Floyd or Ozric
Tentacles. Without any doubt, these too must hold Gong's monumental You as a
bible.
A risky stylistic exercise that yet remains enticing to anyone who knows other albums of this gifted group and a model in musical art. Without any support, eight musicians (coming from different backgrounds: Gas Giant, Sumo Sun ... and among which two basses) try to tell an improvised story with as much spontaneity and mastery as possible, taking the listener by the hand for a trip to the unkown, as they don't know the destination themselves. From a musical point of view, the Danes are much generous, their stage performances usually exceed three hours (as a reminder: dozens of hours of concerts are available on their website, sorted by genre).
Despite the risk of repetition, disorganization and lack of structure, Øresund Space Collective handles it wonderfully and prove the true talent of those musicians, who manage to captivate through well groomed easthetic sounding and advantaging production. The musical content is rich and dense, sound is full of effects, and in spite of a sometimes monotonous rhythm, the atmosphere feels renewed with each track. One will go against the a priori idea bore by improvisation music and will immerse oneself into the throbbing hypnotic rhythms of those tracks, avoiding the pitfall of "an introduction theme stretched to its extreme point without ever taking off".
http://www.progressia.net/en/chroniques/2682-oresund-space-collective-slip-into-the-vortex7 out of 10
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