Ozric Tentacles - "Floating Seeds" (UK 1999)
From Aural Innovations #7 (July 1999)
The release of this CD was originally set for February and gradually was put off until the Ozrics split from Snapper. I was very lucky to get an advance tape of this interesting CD (Thanks Danny!) and I have to say it is a mixed bag. Those who are strickly into the Ozrics sound and don't really appreciate the new psychedelic techno stuff may be quite disappointed and turned off. Unfortunately, those who would start at the beginning of the CD will be disappointed for sure as the first two remixes are the weakest on the whole CD. The CD starts off with Afroclonk by Space Raiders. This has hardly any similarity to the original at all and is ok. Wobglass, one of the best songs on Become the Other is completely ruined by Will White. Ugh. Sparky Lightbourne's Burger remixes Neurochasm and you can hardly tell what part of the song he used to create his own. After these songs, the CD gets interesting. Eat Static really show their stuff with a great version of Strangeitude! Pteranadon is also remixed in a really cool way by Hallucinogen (aka Simon Posford). It has a really nice groove to it. System 7 (Steve Hillage) mixes Sunhair and this is the only song on the CD, except for Eternal Wheel by Zion Train, that I think is what people might expect. Steve uses the main riff of the song and mixes in techno beats but stays pretty true to the original. I was not at all impressed with the reggae dub thing that was done to Meander by DJ BNX. Zion Train do a great job on Eternal Wheel and that is it. Four great mixes and four so-so mixes. Not a release for everyone.
Reviewed by Scott Heller