It’s always a treat whenever you get stressed out from working, having another day at school, or something going on at home, you want to go for a walk and clear your head whilst putting on some music either on your android, iPhone, or your iPod touch to get you going. That’s what I always do in the morning. I would wake up, go for my walk early in the morning for 1 or 2 miles, put my earphones and get in the groove. One of those bands that got my head cleared was Ozric Tentacles.
Now I’ve done a review of their box set Travelling the Great Circle two years ago which covered their first official releases from 1989 to 1993. Mind you, I’m not the biggest Ozric expert, but I do respect the work that they’ve accomplished for nearly 42 years. That and their latest album on the Kscope label entitled Lotus Unfolding reveals a true family routine in Ed Wynne’s blood.
With son and daughter Silas on modular synth and keyboards, followed by bassist Brandi, not to mention flutist Saskia Maxwell, drummer Tim Wallander, and percussionist Paul Hankin, the album was recorded between 2022 and 2023 by Ed and his Silas at their Blue Bubble Studio in Fife. Listening to the Lotus album, puts you through so many updates in what the Ozric tree has started to grow, very rapidly.
The great thing about their new album is that it puts you in a trance by getting away from all of the chaos that has been going on since the pandemic started, and being free from being stuck inside your own house. And for the Wynne’s, a chance of a psychedelic techno groove, meditated guidance, and apparently, a sign of wonderful surreal images coming to life with four centrepieces that you need to endure.
Saskia puts on her space helmet as she becomes captain of the Ozric ship by taking us into space to another planet across our solar system on the title-track. There’s something very under watery about this track. Silas put his magic fingers on the synthesizers to take us something very mysterious and into a dark, cavernous place that is about to be unfold in front of our very eyes.
The brutal guitar forces and twitching sound effects come together as one with ‘Crumblepenny’. It goes through various genres between African world music, flamenco textures which speak of Ottmar Liebert and Michael Hedges, and a chance to look at the stars and the planets aligning in all of its glory.
Meanwhile, ‘Deep Blue Shade’ starts out with a succeeding groove between Ed and Brandi, doing a duet between each other on this funked-up jazzy arrangement. Father to daughter, they work well together as a family, knowing that her dad has got Brandi’s back, creating some amazing beats as Brandi lays down the funk on her bass.
When I was listening to the opening track ‘Storm in a Teacup’ I felt as if Ozric had transformed themselves between a combination of The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Camel’s Moonmadness-era. Taking the aspects of a symphonic fission soft drink, it becomes a mind-blowing concerto that is out of the blue! Ed is all over the place with his guitar, fretting up and down the spiral staircase, getting that extra exercise that he badly needs.
There are the lead sections, heavy riffs, mid-fast synth work from Silas, and heavy drumming patterns done by Wallander himself. I wouldn’t compare it to Hawkwind though, because that would be too much of a cop-out. But they hurl through the cosmos by making the jump to light-speed. And don’t be surprised if you want to get yourself to the dance floor and sweat like crazy until the crack of dawn.
Ozric Tentacles have all of the right ingredients they needed to bring their sculpture to life. And we have experienced a true sense of wisdom that is placed in front of our very eyes on Lotus Unfolding.
