Erpland ( Cd & Dvd Set )

Great early recording of Ozric Tentacles. Very spacey goings on here. The band is great down to every player. Ed doesn't play guitar on every cut, a fact that I lament. He's one of the greats when allowed to be, and he proves it on the majority of the tracks. I like the title cut and "A Gift of Wings" best I think, with "A Gift..." being a classic. But the whole album is very strong, good an' trippy.The package includes a DVD filmed in 1991. It was previously only available on VHS and saw many copies bootlegged without the bands permission. The video is not too bad considering some of the visual effects added after the initial recording. The band had a light show which reminds me of a 1967 Pink Floyd show. The light show was cool, the added effects not so much. We're lucky to have this document of early OT.

I first heard a couple of Ozric Tentacles' songs a few months ago on a prog rock streaming music channel. All I can say is, wow, it's not often that I hear a band that I like so much that I buy up all their CDs in a few weeks. I'm a big fan of complex rock music (like Rush); I also like ambient "electronic" music (Global Communication, Peter Gabriel's 'Passion' CD). Ozric Tentacles bridges the gap between the two worlds perfectly.The sound is airy, swirling, colorful, and spacey. There are a lot of keyboard and synthesizer jams, the guitar solos are reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Sometimes the music rocks out, sometimes it wanders down more ethereal pathways. Wonderful stuff for sitting back and dreaming to. Of course, it's (nearly) all instrumental, as vocals would just be an unnecessary distraction.I recommend Erpland as the band's "showcase" CD, a great sampler of all their styles. You get driving rock (Eternal Wheel), melodic hooks (Sunscape), Middle Eastern (Mysticum Arabicola), reggae (Iscense), ambient (Crackerblocks), New Age (Toltec Spring), and Pink Floyd-esque space-out (A Gift of Wings). Most of the songs are great, very little filler.The biggest criticism I've heard of Ozric Tentacles is that all their albums sound alike. Well, I wouldn't say ALIKE, but you could make a mix tape and easily forget which songs came from which CD. However, I don't consider this a bad thing, since their sound is so unique and so good. If you are interesting in picking up more of their CDs, I also really enjoy "Pungent Effulgent", "Sliding Gliding Worlds", "There is Nothing", and "Waterfall Cities".

This is my 7th Ozric CD and I love it! It is the most atmospheric and multi-dimensional of the ones I own. It really shows off their songwriting and playing abilities. It has more of a world music vibe than pure space rock, with lots of percussion, flute and odd noises and samples. I can either veg-out to this or listen to it critically and it works. I have the Sunrise Festival Live CD and I noticed a lot of the tracks they play are from this CD, but some of the best songs are unique to this CD.Some of my favorites include:Eternal Wheel - I really like the synth and guitar parts in - it has a great rhythm.Toltec Spring is really cool. It has this amazonian beat and spooky bells and sounds in it.Sunscape has a great groove with nice guitar parts.Crackerblocks is another atmospheric layering of sound that is really cool.The Throbbe has a cool jam over a simple pulsating synth groove.Valley of a Thousand Thoughts - great drums and world music vibe.I think this is one of their definitive CDs and you should pick it up if you like the Ozrics.

It took me a while to get into Ozric Tentacles. Ten years ago I purchased their "Jurassic Shift" album and it did not do a lot for me. I ended up selling it back to a used CD store. A couple of years ago I had the chance to see the Finnish band Hidria Spacefolk at the North East Art Rock festival. I really dug them, and since they were constantly being compared to Ozrics, I thought I would give the Tentacles another chance. Over the years my musical tastes have expanded quite a bit and this time I "got it" with them and have been a fan ever since. "Erpland" was originally released in 1990 and was re-issued (and remastered) in 2003. I would say that it ranks up with the best of the band's material. Their patented blend of psychedelic progressive rock is in fine form here. The band also mixes in middle eastern influences and even a bit of reggae. Everything is instrumental with the exception of some non lyrical vocals on the final track "A Gift Of Wings". The remastered album sounds awesome on a good stereo system.

I bought this mainly just to have the bonus DVD of the Fridge gig. I'm a fan of the earlier Ozrics, when there was a lot more open jamming, and less of the sequenced backing tracks. This gig features the band flying high. The quality is good, not great, some annoying video effects, the audio is not pristine, but pro shot gigs from this era are rare indeed.Erpland is one of their finest albums IMO, and should be in every collection. The CD doesn't sound like it has been remastered from the earlier edition i had.The packaging is great, all the original art, and some added info on the album.In short, if you want the DVD, this is well worth it, if you already have the Erpland album, and aren't interested in the DVD, there's no reason to get this.

First - the samples don't do this group justice.I needed to branch out some because my collection was getting a little stale. I knew this group was talented and wanted to like them, but I don't really care for techno or background music. No, they are NOT techno, nor completely background, but one must be paying attention to the music (or stoned - not an option for me) and listen to the whole song to notice.End result - I like this album. I may not purchase everything they've made, but I will enjoy this.

What an adventure this cd is. Each song takes you on a musical journey through the ozone.

Ozric Tentacles is a great band that no one seems to know about in my circle of friends, I'm spreading the word, they are one of very few bands that I want a complete cd collection of