OZRIC TENTACLES

Trees Of Eternity: 1994-2000 KSCOPE

Ed Wynne’s space rock warriors compiled again.

In one of the most unlikely brushes with mainstream attention in prog history, Ozric Tentacles enjoyed some bona fide chart success in the early 90s. That golden period was compiled on the recent Travelling The Great Circle, which included such classic albums as Pungent Effulgent and Strangeitude.

Trees Of Eternity is a similarly generous compendium of Ozrics albums, this time from the second half of the 90s, when Ed Wynne’s unkillable crew cheerfully faded back into underground shadows and began to make even weirder and wilder music. 1994’s Arborescence feels linked to the previous era, and still sounds like a wholesale encapsulation of the band’s story so far. In particular, Yog-Bar-Og is a brilliantly by-the-book epic.

Showcasing a new line-up, it was 1997’s Curious Corn that really ushered in a new era for the Ozrics. From the tribal hypnosis of Afroclonk and the title track’s fervent upgrade of classic acid rock tropes to the skittering electroambience and incendiary shredding of Meander, it still sounds like a bold leap forward. The band’s final album of the 90s, Waterfall Cities is one of their very best, as Wynne veered off on a number of tangents, ranging from Xingu’s bass-throb mysticism to the postdrum’n’bass space rock of Spiralmind.

As a new millennium dawned, The Hidden Step delivered another dose of third-eye-psych, with the featherweight syncopation of Tight Spin as the obvious highlight. This set is completed by two live albums: the previously released Spice Doubt, which features a blistering, extended take on Dissolution, and a performance at San Francisco’s Fillmore in 1998. The latter has been remixed and mastered by Wynne, and captures his band blazing away at the epicentre of psychedelia, collectively lost in a wild, creative reverie.

For diehard Ozrics fans, this set also includes an exclusive book recounting the highs and higher highs of the same period. It is limited to 1,500 copies worldwide, so put the spliff down and get cracking, hippies.