Customer Reviews

Swirly Termination (Dig)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The typical Ozrics experience with some great jazz, atmospheric reggae-rock and so forth. Personally, I love the end track. Not quite as hard as other releases, but they still bring the noise in the keyboard department to make up for it.

...I've given Swirly enough listenage to be able to give its seven tracks a fair shakedown.

Steep, while not a mindblowing tune, is certainly a fascinating opener. The acoustic, eastern foundation that lasts the entire 3 minutes is comparable to the Chinatype ('Swish) or Ch'ai? (Waterfall) sound.

Space Out is very much akin to its sibling on Spice Doubt, but preferable due to it being a bit shorter and cleaner. In all honesty though, the only way to hear this song is live... the Tentacles' rendition of this song at the Wetlands in NYC (7/99) was conquering.

Pyoing is thoroughly Arborescent. I felt like I was listening to long lost track from this earlier album when the synth started rolling in over the driving drum and bass lines. The last 1.5 minutes of the track are an ambient outro, very Arbor..

Far Dreaming is quite masterfully written--one of those tracks that offers enough guitar/synth distraction for one side of your brain, while the other is trying to figure out what time sig Rad and Zia are playing.

Waldorfdub...recreational reggae filler.

Kick 98. Of course this is going to have the same guitar riff, it wouldn't be Kick Muck without it. Ed's sound is, however, quite changed---thinner and more raw, and somewhat more blazing. While the original version remains my favorite Oz tune, this track gets better with each listen.

Yoy is the Ozric catalog. ~12 minutes of everything they have to offer from reggae to rips.

Swirly is a fine album, and actually was recorded before Spice Doubt and Waterfall Cities, which is interesting when analyzing the evolution of the boys' sound.. While John is a bit scarce on the album, he has a fine solo on Pyoing. Fine.

Sorely missed here is a title track, but I wouldn't want to reduce the Ozrics to a formula...

The boys from Oz never seem to disappoint. Pleased with everything I've heard from them so far.

Get yourself in an altered state, put on a pair of headphones, close your eyes and take the trip. This is by far one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. The mix is literally incredible it feels like the music is coming from every direction like little tentacles pentrating every portion of the brain.

Best of ozric:

Waterfall Cities

Pungent Effulgent

Spirals in Hyperspace

Erpland

Curious Corn

Floors too far away

Arborescence

I like all of their music but too me the albums listed above stand out the most.

Buy them all! They do not ever disappoint.

ozric will not dissapoint! I found these guys by accident I bought almost all there cds there is not a bad one! [ compare them ] there is no conparison PROGRESSIVE

"Swirly Termination", just like each and every one of the excellent predecessor Ozric albums, delivers the musical goods. As always, expect the unexpected AND the expected. First the "unexpected": unlike the last two Ozric Tentacle releases, there are no explorative ambient rave-techno kind of songs on this album. Instead, "Swirly Termination" is more space jam oriented and kind of a return to the Ozric Tentacles of old. In fact, this album features a longer, more spontaneous groove jam version of "Kick Muck", called "Kick 98", which originally appeared on 1988's "Sliding Gliding Worlds", 1989's "Pungent Effulgent" and 1992's now out-of-print "Live Underslunky". The "expected" is that this CD JAMS. Particularly awesome is the second song "Space Jam" and the nearly twelve minute long "Yoy Mandela", which is one of the two stoney Reggae songs you can always expect on an Ozric album. All in all, "Swirly Termination" should please all the dedicated Ozric Tentacle fans and encourage the enlistment of new fans to the always growing legions of Ozric listeners. By the way, check out the new official website for the band at ozrics.com if you get the chance. It is VERY cool. Long live Ozric Tentacles!

I love Ozric Tentacles! If you love Pink Floyd, check them out. This is some of the most evolved music I have ever heard! Very trippy! Everything I have heard from them is absolutely amazing, and this album rules! Peace

This was given to Snapper in 1998 to fulfill a contractual obligation. Relations between the band and label deteriorated and as a result the band isn't supporting this release at all. Most of the songs have a half-finished feel to them, especially in terms of production. 1999's Waterfall Cities is positively sparkling, whereas with Swirly you can tell Ed and the boys didn't have the time or inclination to produce it right. Anyway, the songs still sound great -- it's an Ozrics album -- especially the opener Steep; the studio version of Spice Doubt (called Space Out here); and my fave from this disk, the updated version of Kick Muck called Kick 98. It shows the current incarnation of the band re-interpreting and jamming on the Ozrics' live classic. I especially like the new 90s keyboard sound, and the way Zia's bass and Rad's drums play off of each other during the extended jam.

Another thing -- the cover artist should be ashamed of himself for totally ripping off Blim, who usually does the album covers.

Unfortunately, the band won't make a dime off this album if you buy it. See ozrics.com for more details on this release...

I remembered when Swirly Termination was released in 2000, the band pretty much wanted everyone to forget it, and in its place they recorded a brand new album then called The Hidden Step, to let everyone know that this was their new album for '00, not Swirly Termination.

Anyway, with Swirly Termination, it was intended as their 1998 followup to Curious Corn, then relations with Snapper soured, and the album was left to gather dust, and two years later, was released without the band knowing about it. Meanwhile the band started a second, new private label called Stretchy (Dovetail was their first, before their deal with Snapper), and got an American deal with the ill-fated Phoenix Rising label, and Waterfall Cities and The Hidden Step were the results (Pyramidion was originally released only on Stretchy, since Phoenix Rising went under by that point). Then in 2002, the band found out about the truth, and mended relations with Snapper, and now included this CD in their discography on their website.

I remembered hearing not the most favorable reviews of this CD, many commenting that they sounded more like unfinished demos than complete compositions. Well, to me, unfinished Ozric demos are still much better than too many other band's fully finished stuff, and I am perfectly happy with the music presented here. Given this was recorded in '98, it's no surprise the lineup was Ed, John, Zia, Rad and Seaweed, unfortunately there don't appear to be much of John, likely because John didn't have much time to lay down his tracks before relations with Snapper went south. Well, I'm happy to say all the trademarks of the Ozrics are here: great wild guitar playing from Ed, great spacy synths from Ed and Seaweed, the usual great drumming from Rad, but wishing for more flute from John is the only drawback here. The band also revisits "Kick Muck" called "Kick '98", which is still very recognizable, but included a few new twists as well to keep it fresh. "Waldofdub", as you might guess, is the band's venture into dub, with a little bit of reggae thrown in. If you own the Spice Doubt Streaming CD, you get to hear the original studio version of "Spice Doubt", entitled "Spaced Out" here. It's only with "Yoy Mandala" that you get to hear John. This one seems a bit unstructured, and this is easily one piece that gives one the impression of being unfinished.

The artwork this time around isn't from Blim, but a guy named Brian Burrows, same guy responsible for the artwork of the recent 2-for-1 CD reissues of their early cassette material (Tantric Obstacles/Erpsongs, There is Nothing/Live Ethereal Cereal, The Bits Between the Bits/Sliding Gliding Worlds), but the artwork here looks closer to the stuff Blim does, but he does have his own style.

Well, Swirly Termination is a great CD no matter what, imagine what would have happened if they were able to complete it properly, it could probably end up as one of their finest.