Customer Reviews

Become the Other (Dig)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another masterpiece by the Tentacles, though this one seems to have fallen through the cracks. Try the web page for a music store called Muzos. Tracks: Cat DNA, Ahu Belahu, Ghedengi, Wob Glass, Neurochasm, Become the Other, Vibuthi, Plurnstyle

Track one is simply a ripper, and Ahu is the typical Ozric interlude track: short and soundy. The next three tunes take you down some pretty sick corridors until you're soothed by the title track. Then, Vibuthi. This song does every trick in the Ozric book. Ed starts out acoustic, and very Arabic, and by the end of the song he's blitzed you with as much speed and distortion as you'll need. Plurnstyle: bouncy; perfect album closer.

This mid 90's offering from The Ozrics is another psychedelic progressive rock feast for the ears. I have the re-mastered version and like the other releases it really sounds fantastic. This album starts out a little slow for me as the first few tracks don't really blow me away, but the second two thirds of the album is classic Ozrics with plenty of fantastic instrumental progressive rock workouts. Ozrics albums tend to have a lot of sameness about them and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them, but if you like what the band does you will probably like this album.

OT were already becoming the other glowstick waving entity at this point-assimilated to far less effect than what would come to be-but the group always seemed to have enough musical integrity to supply enough arranged ammunition to avoid stinker status.

I hunted down a used copy of this CD, and found it to be just okay. It has a few good songs, such as the rocking "Cat DNA" and the pleasant, mellow numbers "Wob Glass" and "Plurnstyle", but nothing that rivals the band's best work elsewhere. The other songs, I thought, were monotonous and lacking in energy, especially the very long, very repetitive "Vibuthi". I'm scratching my head over why people thought this track was so great.

Oh well, it seems that this CD is completely out of print anyway. There are better releases in the Ozric's large catalog, which I now have most of. The lush Arborescence and the trancy Waterfall Cities are both good choices from the band's 90's output. This one's for completists only.

The album starts out, in Cat DNA, with a synth sound that gets louder and louder until it decieves you by getting louder than any other single sound throughout the entirity of the album. Then, when the Ozrics start to jam, you find you've turned your player down because you had it just where you wanted it, but now it's too low. This is truely a neat and clever trick.
As I've said, the whole of the album is as good as anything the Ozrics have ever done, and should be listened to the whole way through in one sitting, lieing down if possible, sprawled out if you have the stamina. Cat DNA jams hard all the way through, and then Ahu Belahu, a track only two minutes 55 seconds long, raises the Ozrics standard for the rest of the labum, wisely denying the rest of the album the freedom it was given before. Ghedengi is a Middle Eastern sounding Ozrics track, which is good to have. Wob Glass is fun and wacky. Neurochasm shows the Ozrics doing their techno business, and hardcore it is.
Become the other marks a turning point in the album and perhaps in the Ozrics career. On the surface it is easy and soothing to listen to, but it also seems to show a great weeriness. From now on, the Ozrics are going to take it easy and not push themselves too hard, like wise old men.
Vibuthi is another Middle Eastern track and is also very good. Plurnstyle, with a mysterious title, beats even Wob Glass in pure fun and says goodbye to the album in a way that leaves
us satisfied.

Become the Other, released in 1995 marks two milestones in the band's career. First, it was their first album to feature drummer Rad and keyboardist Seaweed (both apparently members of Damidge, a band that featured Roly Wynne, himself an ex-Ozric, who sadly took his own life at the end of 1999). Lastly it was unfortunately their last release for Dovetail (I happen to own the original Dovetail CD). This one never received an American release, probably because IRS Records was under severe financial strains that cause it to go under the following year (1996). Anyway, because of the addtion of Rad and Seaweed, Become the Other shows the Ozrics moving towards a more techno direction. Also the music here has really mellowed out compared to their previous release, the excellent Arborescence. There is less guitar and more synths. It also tends to be more ethnic as well, and there's that ever wonderful mystical atmosphere as well. Become the Other also features more great artwork from Blim, and if you look carefully in the artwork, you'll see a poster to Strangeitude, and another poster of an Eat Static album (which is no surprise, since previous members Joie and Merv had left to concentrate full time on Eat Static). If you're an Ozrics fan, be sure to have this one in your collection.

This was the first album by the new lineup (newcomers Seaweed, Rad and Zia, plus founder and lead guitarist Ed Wynne and flutist John) after the uneven and undisciplined Arborescence. The opening track is a prototypical Ozric track, the excellent tight inventive rocker Cat DNA. After that however they start breaking out of the mold to a certain extent. I played Ahu Belahu for my nephew and told him it was 'dinosaur music'-which it is with strange saurian bellows and tribal drumming. Ghedengi is a very dark and brooding cut with an eerie synth motif present throughout the song. Wob Glass is the Ozric's attempt to do the techno scene one better (hence the album title)-very hypnotic. The CD stumbles a bit on the uptempo Neurochasm, recalling the more mediocre moments of their previous three albums. The title track is a pleasant little mellow diversion, but nothing really special... ...However, the next cut, Vibuthi, I consider the finest thing they have ever done, and makes the CD well worth a purchase on its own merit. It contains this Spanish flamenco-type motif as the core of the cut, improvising some incredibly tight and awesomely powerful guitar shards and synth and organ bits around it. An absolutely amazing and focused cut and proof of just how good the Ozrics can be when they decide to rein in their excesses just a little bit. Flurnstyle ends the CD as a midtempo dancey number. Overall a must-buy for Vibuthi and most of the other cuts are good as well.

When I was introduced to Ozric Tentacles, I was in shock.....
I couldn't believe that I'd never heard of them.
These guys fill a gap in the evolution of progressive rock
into electronic space ambiance.
The synth work is just awesome.
"Become the other" is absolutely one of the best albums ever recorded.
That's it!
If you don't have this album in your collection, you should
get it!