The Prog Rock Album Club

Unknown Soldier · 03-22-2014, 05:31 PM

Album title: Erpland
Artiste: Ozric Tentacles
Nationality: British
Year: 1990
Subgenre: Space/Psychedelic Rock
Player(s): Ed Wynne (Guitars, Synth), Roly Wynne (Bass), Paul Hankin (Percussion), Mervin Pepler (Drums), John Egan (Flute, Voice), Joie Hinton (Synth) (There are some others but these are the main players)
Familiarity: Knew the name simply because it sounded interesting, apart from that nothing at all.
Favourite track(s): Nothing overly excited me but I remember I enjoyed "Crackerblocks".
Why? "Crackerblooks" was nicely paced and quite soothing (despite the fact I don't listen to an album to be soothed)
Least favourite track(s):“Iscence” and "Erpland"
Why? "Iscence" too reggae orientated and "Erpland" just seemed too straightforward and uninspiring.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? None.
Factoids you'd like to share? None this time.
End impression: I'm still undecided over what I feel about 'New Age' material and this album hasn't helped me decide either. The album as a whole is a rich listen of sounds but for me that's about it.
Comments: I know this sounds dense and close minded, but even today I find it hard to get into an instrumental album and this one was no different and considering it ran for 70 plus mins didn't much help either. Also when I think instrumental I think film soundtrack, which doesn't help either. As already stated by Urban I also found the album very clean (not a negative for me) but I wasn't expecting it to be like so. Also agree that all the so-called musical styles had seemingly been put through a blender and the individuality of the musical styles sucked out, to leave a modern new age hippy type album (squeaky clean hippies of course

). On the album I hear Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream and Gong influences amongst many others and will agree that the guitars are pretty intense at times and probably the best thing about the album. Of the musical styles, I always dig anything that has Middle Eastern tinges but the reggae didn't do anything for me, in fact it never does unless Joe Strummer is singing it. The album should also have been edited and cut to around 40 odd minutes, maybe then I would've given it a higher score.

Would I want to listen to this album again? Not anytime soon but perhaps one day, because I'm sure this and the band's discography probably needs multiple listens to really grasp what's on offer here.

Rating: Sleek and clean but hardly exciting 3.0