Customer Reviews

Sunrise Festival

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best live recordings of Ozric Tentacles I've heard, and I have heard many. This CD also has three of my favorites: Jurassic Shift, Eternal Wheel, and Tidal Convergence. The song list that Amazon.com provides doesn't include Tidal Convergence, but it's on there. However, the CD does not have The Throbbe.

This CD also comes with a DVD of the same show, which includes all of the songs including The Throbbe. It is great to see Joie and Merv again, and Brandi Wynne does an outstanding job of filling Zia's shoes. This particular show is a bit more loose than other shows that the Ozrics have performed, and on the DVD they all seem somewhat frantic on stage. It must have been a hectic gig.

However, I'm very happy with this product, and it's available at a great price as well. This is one of my favorite Ozric CDs.

I wasn't blown away by this particular performance (prefer Pongmaster DVD over this one) but I had an odd experience with the DVD and wanted to pass it along. My copy makes the worst racket when it is spinning in the player. Actually loud enough to distract from music unless you have it cranked up. I tried it in all 3 of my players with the same result, so I'm not sure why that is. I've never run into this before. If anyone else runs into the same issue, I'd love to know about it. I knocked a star off for that alone and another for just a mediocre performance (IMO).

The Sunrise Festival is a worthy addition to the Ozric Tentacles live releases. It features original keyboardist Joie Hinton, and drummer Merv Pepler, who rejoined the band for a brief stretch in 2007. At first glance, the setlist may look somewhat standard, containing a number of songs found on prior live releases (likely due to the re-inclusion of Hinton and Pepler). However, after cuing it up, I was pleased to discover that both the audio quality was great and the performance was quite strong as well. Although some songs do not feature extended jamming, they are played extremely well- everyone sounding very confident, and many of the older songs yield interesting fruit in hearing the different keyboard sounds Joie and Ed are now using since some of these songs were documented on Live Underslunky in 1992. The Sunrise Jam is also great to hear the band jamming a bit. My only real wish would be for the show to be a little longer. Hearing the Ozrics live is a complete- in depth experience, and this 70 min disc sounds great, but leaves the listener wishing there were a couple more songs/spaces to complete the trip. All in all however, it is simply a great treat to hear the band still making music with three of its original core members over twenty years after they first began playing together.

I Thought This DVD was not bad, shame it didn't have Zia in da mix etc, When the discs in the player it makes noise, I found this rather disturbing, anything there etc

I didn't even know they were releasing this, so it was a great surprise. I can't say there is anything new here as they play live very much like the studio recordings, but it's still great stuff as always. The DVD is a great bonus.

I really loved the Ozric Tentacles sense 1990's....an They're some instrumental space rock band.

But I see nothing speical bout this live cd, but still worth buying because the dvd is much better than the pongmaters ball dvd.

Also the sunrise jam is a good song too...

If your into pink floyd or frank zappa, etc....then you should check out the ozric tentacles.

Their not some regular cheesy instrumental band like jazz an classicals bands.

Anyway I like the erpland, water fall cities, curious corn, the hidden step, but then again I like em all.

The latest album floors too far away is still good stuff.

I have about every ozric's cd there is there, except for greatests hits crap like afterswish, etc....

Greatest hits cd's are for beginners or people who aren't really into the whatever artist or band.

Let me just start off saying to "C. G. Frier" and his review, that they are coasting. He must be a new comer to the band. The reason they are playing material from the older albums is obvious. Joie and Merv are playing in this show. Basically original members who played in the headiest early periods. I didn't even know they were back. So I would not imaging that they would play anything but songs they helped write or new stuff in the mix. Ever heard of Eat Static?

All I can say it is a real treat to see Merv back behind the drum kit and Joie twiddling away on the keys. Oh Yeah!

Oh and Brandy does some whaling justice on the bass too!

I have all their live stuff and don't listen to it much, they are just not recreatable live at home. This on the other hand is so close, with the spacey parts between songs, so close. Sunrise Jam is amazing, worth the price alone.
Either you get the Ozrics or you don't. If you do then get this one.

I've been a fan of progressive rock and other genres for a long time but only recently heard of the Ozrics because of Pandora. I absolutely love this band. I went out and bought 5 CDs of theirs. I could best describe them as a mix of Pink Floyd, Rush and techno. They have both a technical aspect to their music but also can be listened to as background music because it has a great beat and vibe.

This CD is a sampling of their songs through the years in a live concert setting. It also contains a DVD of the show. It looks like the show was a bit hectic due to some setup issues, but the songs sound good nonetheless. I really like Sunrise Jam, Eternal Wheel and White Rhino Tea -- all excellent performances. I recently saw them live and this is representative of their live show.

Ozric Tentacles 'Sunrise Festival' CD/DVD is one that I have found I haven't just played once and left to sit in its case on a shelf (as so many do).

I listen to it in the car, and think about bits and watch the DVD to see ...was that keyboard...or was that bit guitar?

Being a synth lover helps (they play at least 6 synths between them) plus, the video shooting on it is terrific, and the CGI effects sensible. Often that can ruin a DVD.

There are a lot of parts where the `close-up' is zoomed right in on the musical action at the appropriate time, so you can see what's being tweaked by whom to make the familiar noises. Also the overall sense of a LIVE show is not lost, and the banter and expressions of the band are pleasing.

...and, to me, the music is so deliciously complex, and I admire the Ozrics for the rich canvas of sounds they bring, that are not `studio overdubs' as I would have thought, but actually played `live'.

They seem like people we'd like to know too, with seemingly not a lot of extraneous ego flopping around.

Must be cool with your wife playing Bass.

I'm pretty sure that you will not only enjoy the Music and the Video, but also the high quality packaging - with full color photographic booklet.

It really is one of my treasures!

Ozric Tentacles' new CD/DVD release, "Sunrise Festival", finds the band treading water on a merely acceptable set recorded last June at the Sunrise Festival in Somerset, England.
Rather than perform any numbers from their last two studio releases, "Spirals in Hyperspace" and "The Floor's Too Far Away", Ozrics concentrates on classic pieces from the late '80's and early 90s, such as "Jurassic Shift", "White Rhino Tea", and "Eternal Wheel". These are all great tunes, but Ozrics fans have heard them time and time again.
On the plus side, the sound quality is a vast improvement over their last live relase "Pongmaster's Ball", and the DVD features some trippy video effects, although they tend to come off as rather ametuerish.