Purple Overdose - "Reborn"
(Action Records 1999, Act 002)
Purple Overdose - "Reborn"
(Action Records 1999, Act 002)
From Aural Innovations #16 (June 2001)
The long, long awaited third album from this 5-piece Greek outfit continues their exploration of all things colorful, spacey, and psychedelic. The album kicks off in fine fashion with the epic twelve-minute track, (It's a) Fortune Teller, featuring trippy, swirling organ, sitar, tabla, and of course, guitar. Costas Constantinou's vocals are in English, though with a slight accent, lending an exotic feel to the music in the same way that Demis Roussos' vocals did to the music of Aphrodite's Child back in the 60's. The band rocks out on Gonna Be Tomorrow, Today. Constantinou's guitar playing has just the right amount of fuzz, and plenty of searing energy. Other highlights include the mellow, floating Her Arms Embrace the Sun, and the 13 ½-minute, four-part odyssey Fading Sounds of Lost Thoughts.
If you love that delicious 60's psychedelic sound, a combination of the skill and melodic inventiveness of early Pink Floyd with the heaviness of Iron Butterfly, coupled with the top-notch production of today, you'll certainly dig this album. It will no doubt take a considerable number of spins in your disk player, as it has mine.
For more information you can visit the Purple Overdose web site at: http://www.purpleoverdose.gr/.
Write Purple Overdose c/o Action Records; Arachovis 20 10680; Athens, Greece.
Tel./Fax: 0030-1-3640208
An interesting interview with the band, from 1997, before this release, can be found at:
http://www.delerium.co.uk/freakbea/archive/intview/purple_o.html.
Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald