OZRIC TENTICLES
Whelanslive.com presents
OZRIC TENTICLES
+ Special Guests
[This gig was moved from The Village to Whelan’s, original tickets still valid]
Ozric Tentacles are, simply put, legends of the UK underground. One of the most influential bands to emerge from the UK’s festival scene, “The Ozrics” layer ambient and ethereal landscapes with freeform dub trips, incredible rave grooves and psychedelic progressive rock. It’s an open exploration of music and the soul. In their nearly 30 years, the Ozrics have experienced the vicissitudes of the rock and roll life. The band has flourished through a number of line-up changes, spawned several side projects (including Eat Static and Nodens Ictus), created their own record label (Dovetail & Stretchy), put out at least 25 albums, scored a hit record, and sold over a million albums world-wide. And yet, the basic motivation behind the band’s existence has never wavered.
A campfire at the Stonehenge free festival in 1983 witnessed the birt of Ozric Tentacles. It was there that synth player Joie Hinton, stumbled upon brother’s Ed Wynne (guitar) and Roly Wynne (bass), performing in a band known at the time as Bolshem People, along with drummer Nick ‘Tig’ Van Gelder (Jamiroquai). From that very first jam session, a musical compatibility was evoked that has since been a trademark of the Ozric Tentacles. It’s a signature blend of hippy aesthetics and raver electronics with spiralling guitars, textured waves of keyboards, midi, samplers, and super groovy bass and drum rhythms. The Ozrics swiftly claimed their place as a staple of the UK’s burgeoning festival scene, and are now credited as one of the influential musical linchpins of the scene’s re-emergence.
Throughout the early 1990′s, constant touring of the UK helped The Ozric Tentacles to build a tremendous national fan base on a grass roots level. With the band’s 1993 release “Jurassic Shift,” which debuted at #11 on the British pop chart and climbed into the Top 10 in the National Album Charts, the Ozrics eventually won over the adulation of mainstream press, and found itself heralded in publications such as NME and Melody Maker. It was, and still is, an astonishing accomplishment for a band with no hit single, no celebrity status, and no major record label backing.
“Washes of processed strings purr into and around echoing alien and mechanical computer textures, while the rhythm section deftly navigates complicated and danceable time signatures. The sonic rush is conducive to the psychedelic atmosphere surrounding the band and its entourage. Ed Wynne’s futuristic music could easily score any sci-fi series or film, yet it is clear that such work would cut into Ed’s alternative lifestyle and possibly ruin the source of so many perfect musical ideas.” – Mark Polzin, Classic Rock Magazine Currently the Ozrics are in the studio preparing for their “Paper Monkeys Tour”. Spanning over 3 months, the tour will be stopping for fans in America, Canada, South America, Europe, Scandinavia, and even see the band’s debut performance in Russia. Last year saw them tour extensively both at home and abroad, playing a 35 date tour in the UK, America, and Europe leaving yet another trail of astonished and bewildered fans eagerly awaiting more.
Ozric Tentacles new release, “Paper Monkeys”, is distributed worldwide by Snapper Records. CDs and Vinyl, along with the rest of Ozrics’ vast back catalogue are most readily available from Snapper’s main UK distributor, Burning Shed: www.burningshed.com/store/ozrictentacles/
Having a musical identity that is as broad as their influences, the album is a body of work that combines rock, world music, trance, and ethereal jams with organic drums and bass in a way that only Ozric Tentacles can. Paper Monkeys is based around the guitar work, synthesis, and compositional skills of Ed Wynne, founding member of Ozric Tentacles. The current album is reviewed as follows:
“Nearly 30 years into their musical journey, there is still a freshness and exploratory feel to their music. This release is relentlessly and pulsatingly energetic from start to end, with all the Ozrics’ trademark hippy aesthetics, spiralling guitars, waves of keyboards, and driving bass and drum grooves over undulating, ambient landscapes. The more trad-prog amongst us will most enjoy Ed Wynne’s guitar on the rocking title track “Paper Monkeys, but this band flit effortlessly between outright freeform dub trip, psychedelic, guitar-lick rock, and improvisational rave groove. From the rhythmically intense “Attack of the Vapours” to the Ethereal “Will of the Wisps” and the chillaxing “Air City”, this absorbingly intense workout has produced and entrancing album.” – Rock Society