The Spacious Mind - "The Mind Of A Brother"
(Delerium 1999, DELEC CD 076)
The Spacious Mind - "The Mind Of A Brother"
(Delerium 1999, DELEC CD 076)
From Aural Innovations #9 (January 2000)
The new Spacious Mind album begins with the identical horn call heard at the beginning of "To Earth With Love" from the Cosmic Minds At Play CD. But no... this is not the dreamier Spacious Mind heard on that earlier album. This new album gets very aggressive, very fast. The opening track, "The Prophet Am I", lays down a standard heavy rockin' beat, but with a way cool 60's retro organ melody, a thudding bass beat, and the spacerockinest guitars I've heard all year. Totally blistering. This sucker ROCKS!! One of my favorites segments from last year's Garden Of A Well Fed Head album is the last minutes of "Upon Which Areas May The Circles Be Drawn" in which the band goes into a total space freakazoid brain jam, and "The Prophet Am I" takes this sound into the stratosphere. During its 14 minutes the band does offer brief, calmer interludes that are no less mind blistering, but also give the listener a moment to catch a breath before the music takes off again.
On "House In The Country" and "Interplanetary Love Machine Pt III: The Final Solution" the band gets into bluesy jam rock territory. "House In The Country" is a kick ass, almost metallic, bluesy rocker that is 'SpaciousMindosized' by the band's brain-blistering swirling space guitars and keyboards. There are more vocals on this album than I've heard in the past and on this song the singer screams in what seems like an effort to be as aggressive as the music. On "Interplanetary Love Machine" the extended wailing organ notes provide a backdrop for the guitars which are blasting out power chords and twisting, winding licks in a 20 minute primordial mind-bashing stew of spacerock at its very best. The song comes in for a peaceful landing, developing into a free-for-all ambient atmospheric jam that segues smoothly into "The Closer You Get To The Sun". This track and "Outlaw Mutation Boogie" seem to have a bit of everything both aggressive and dreamy. "The Closer You Get To The Sun" is like a 60's flower power tune but accompanied by a wall of guitars and keyboards. And "Outlaw Mutation Boogie" is a multi-part track that includes the 1969 Mason Proffit tune "Walk On Down The Road".
In a nutshell, if you only buy one CD this year its gotta be this one. Honestly, I was out of breath when this 74 minute disc was over. HIGHEST recommendation!
Available through Delerium Records.
You can visit The Spacious Mind at their web site.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz