After Ed Wynne made clear ship with the Ozric Tentacles last year and simply exchanged the whole crew (or, to be more precise, sacked them), some of his former band colleagues got together in the Space Rock formation Dream Machine.

Among them are Jon "Champignon" Egan (Flute, Duduk and other

exotic wind instruments), who'd been an Ozric stable for nearly 18 years,

Ozric original bass player, Alex Pym, who plays guitar for Dream Machine,

and keyboarder Seaweed has now joined them too.

 

It is therefore hardly surprising that Dream Machine's musical home is instrumental Space Rock, but their music is far jammier, not as compact and electronic in character as Ozric's music. Of course, the electrons are bubbling here as well,

the flute is finally clearly audible, and Reggae and World Music elements help to loosen things up. But Dream Machine music appears to be much more open and improvised, and more rooted in in the rock sound of the 70s.

 

The DVD showcases the complete material of the unfortunately already sold out first CD "Trilogia", which was launched that evening.

The very broadly arranged tracks - one only gets to hear 3 (!)  titles in 80 minutes - are based on lengthy extended solos, alternatively on guitar, various flutes or keyboards, as well as waxing and waning arches/waves of musical tension.

Exaggerating a little, one could get the impression that it really doesn't make that much of a substantial difference whether a track lasts for 10, 15 or 20 minutes, because once the band has found its rhythm, the musicians float with the groove, occasionally varying the tempo and taking lead solo in turns.

 

But it's a DVD, and so the optical effects and impact of light show, freaky musicians and the audience naturally come into their own. Therefore this nearly 80 minutes long Space Rock Trip  really is good fun - provided one has a liking for the spherical-spacey sounds of this genre.

 

Kristian Selm

 

Translated from German by

Katharina (cityfix)

Thank-you (again) !