Ozric Tentacles - Jurassic Shift

Year of Release: 1998
Label: Snapper Music
Catalog Number: SMMCD547
Format: CD
Total Time: 52:51:00

Jurassic Shift was recorded in 1992-93 and re-released by Snapper Music as a remastered edition in 1998. The label knew what they were doing when they chose this album as one of their remastered series from the Ozric Tentacles catalog. This has to rate as a career apex for the group. Every album I have heard thus far has been extraordinary, but this is one step above that. This is the kind of release that makes a group a well known commodity in a particular style of music. There are not too many groups that can claim they are doing something completely original or something no one else is doing, except for groups like this. They are, and remain the exception to the rule. I have always found it impossible to single out any one song on any of their recordings, every one is fantastic. An album is an event, one large endless jam session that is in a continual evolutionary state that's right on the edge of exploding into something entirely new, like a supernova. As each song begins and ends, and then the entire process starts again, you don't ever feel there was a break in between songs. They keep you entranced, excited, mystified, and always wondering what is going to happen next. And that after all is their strong appeal and a pioneering niche they created all for themselves.

The mind melting keyboards, the Middle Eastern influences, the hyper drive guitar riffs...its all here for you to throw yourself into. Be careful though, this stuff will carry you away; just remember to check back in.

[Reissued again in 2003 by Snapper, as a 2CD set with Erpland in 2004 (SMDCD492), and again in 2008 in an expanded version that includes a DVD (SMACD955X); Vinyl Lovers Records has issued it in 2009 as an LP (900532)]

Tracklisting:
Sun Hair (5:43) / Stretchy (6:51) / Feng Shui (10:24) / Half Light In Thillai (5:35) / Jurassic Shift (11:05) / Pterandodon (5:40) / Train Oasis (2:45) / Vita Voom (4:48)

Musicians:
Joie Hinton - keyboards, sampling, atmospheres
Merv Pepler - drums, ethnic percussion, babble
Ed Wynne - guitar, keyboards, koto, sampling, atmospheres
Roly Wynne - bass
John Egan - flute, babble
Marcus C Diess - ethnic percussion
Zia Geelani - bass
Generator John - tambourine

Discography:
Erpsongs (1985/1994)
Tantric Obstacles (1985/1994)
Live Ethereal Cereal (1986/1994)
There Is Nothing (1986/1994)
Sliding Gliding Worlds (1988/1994)
The Bits Between The Bits (1989/1994)
Pungent Effulgent (1989/1990*)
Erpland (1990/1998/2003/2009)
Strangeitude (1991/1992)*
Sploosh/Live Throbbe (12-inch single) (1991)
Afterswish (comp.) (1991)
Live Underslunky (1992)
Jurassic Shift (1993/1998)*
Vitamin Enhanced Ozric Tentacles (6 CDs) (1994)
Arborescence (3-sided LP w/extra track) (1994)
Become The Other (1995)
Curious Corn (1997)
Spice Doubt - Streaming A Gig In The Ether (ltd ed webcast live CD) (1998/2003)
Floating Seeds (remix album w/var. artists)(1999)
Waterfall Cities (1999)
The Hidden Step (2000)
Swirly Termination (2000)**
Pyramidion (ep) (2001)
Oakum (Ozric fan club only) (2001)
Live At The Pongmasters Ball (CD/DVD) (2002)
Spirals In Hyperspace (2004)
Eternal Wheel, The Best of Ozric (2004)
The Floor's Too Far Away (2006)
The Yum Yum Tree (2009)
Nodens Ictus - Spacelines (2000)

*CD has extra track; **not an official or recognized OT release

Genre: Psychedelic-Space Rock

Origin UK

Added: June 26th 2002
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.ozrics.com
Hits: 2740
Language: english