Confession time. I once paid good money to go and see the Ozric Tentacles. At the time I was a student living in Wakefield and we went to see them live at Leeds Met University. I have no recollection of the gig itself, I’d like to believe that an Ozrics Tentacles gig was like the 60’s in as much as if you can remember them you weren’t really there but I just think it has been conveniently erased. I do remember deciding to drive home barefoot before turning the wrong way into the Leeds one way system and ending up parked on the pavement. Whether this is the effect that the Ozric Tentacles has on people or just a judgement on my recreational habits at the time is up for debate.
So when their ‘Best of’ compilation landed on my doormat I found myself in the midst of nostalgic flashbacks. The Ozric Tentacles have been going now in one form or another for 20 years and they have released 22 albums on their own label. When I stumbled across them in the early 90’s they were to be found on the edge of the hippy end of dance culture where raves and festivals met. This scene also crossed into the world of new age travellers, a seemingly unheard of group these days but at the time, when bands like the Levellers were seen as credible, new age travellers were everywhere. Most notably in the car park at my college where several middle class students decided to live in their vans. This seemed to miss the point (they didn’t travel anywhere for a start) but they were happy enough.
Musically Ozric Tentacles are (according to the press release), ‘a free form psychedelic vehicle for jamming………inspired by a myriad of music and musicians from Kraut rockers to guitar maestro Steve Vai, ethnic Arabic to electronic techno.’ Hippies in other words. Not surprisingly then most tracks easily pass the 7 minute mark and 2 clock in at a hefty 11 minutes. Mostly they start off with whooshing noises and then delve into a Hawkwindesque guitar grooves before various soloists widdle away over the top. Song titles are such esoteric joys as ‘Jurassic Shift’, Myriapod’, ‘Sunscape’ and ‘Sultana Detrii’. Others such as ‘Wob Glass’ do the same job but with electronic equipment and are more like a zoned out Orbital before the Steve Vai guitar turns up and widdles away as if that sort of thing was acceptable. For the first couple of minutes this is quite enjoyable but soon it starts to grate and the annoying solos get under your skin.
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However I’m not giving this a fair crack of the whip, you wouldn’t go to a Pogues concert and not drink would you? Having ‘located’ the relevant substances and indulged in a joint I can vouch that the whooshy floaty bits are suitably relaxing and vaguely enjoyable but even my stoned mind is having trouble dealing with ‘ethnic percussion’, the arab influences and that damn widdly guitar. Having decided that I’m not nearly stoned enough I fashion a bong out a handy Coke bottle and other household implements. After a hit on this I can confirm it was much better. In fact I didn’t notice the music at all. I did however spend half an hour thinking I’d collapsed my lung before nodding off and dribbling on myself.
If you believe that wearing an oversized rainbow jumper will cut a suitable dash down the local, if you take your dog for a walk using a piece of string or own a chillum you’ll love this album. And for fans of the band it is a lovingly put together compilation in lavish packaging and comes as a 2 disc set. For the rest of us it is hippie bollocks of the first order.
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