18 months or so ago, I wasn't too kind to Øresund Space Collective's Good Planets Are Hard to Find, an album in which, I felt, their totally improvised, instrumental brand of space-rock jams failed to come off, unable to transport the listener into that trance state that this sort of music often induces.
Slip Into the Vortex is a much more successful album, with some excellent instrumental space-rock trance jam music.
On Good Planets Are Hard to Find, one of the key "imported" sounds was the sitar of Siena Root's K G West: its integration into the music could have been more successful. On Slip Into the Vortex, spacey keyboardists Mogens and Dr.Space are again joined by guests from other bands: Stefan (Gas Giant and Sumo Sun) and Magnus (Mantric Muse and Sumo Sun) on guitars, Anders G. (Bland Bladen) on drums, Jocke and Pär (Carpet Knights) on bass; and finally, but definitely not least, Anders H (Univerzals) on saxophones. Anders H's playing fits well into this space-rock jam style and the sax is a highlight of these jams, even when played at the edge of its capabilities. The other major contributor to the success of Slip Into the Vortex is the rhythmic playing. Anders G's drumming is impressive here, inspiring rhythmic delights that carry this music through its slow sections, lulling you into that trance before the pace quickens and you sink deeper: it's certainly a very aptly named album!
Even a piece like "Mothership Machinery", which comes in at some 25 minutes, succeeds through a variety of pace and intensity control, guitar adding plenty of verve when it's needed.
Of course, the problem I have is the difference between my two reviews of these two recent albums by the band: either Slip Into the Vortex really is more successful as a jam space-rock experience than Good Planets Are Hard to Find, or my subjectivity is showing through. I cannot be the judge to decide which. All I'll say in my defence is that I give each and every album for review a number of "blind" listens and decide its qualities on that basis before reading any promo notes, relistening to/reviewing past material etc. Slip Into the Vortex works because the players brought in for the jam have added verve, sonic textures and rhythm that suit this form of mantric music.
Over to you...
Track Listing:-
1) I Teleported to Acapulco (9:56)
2) Mothership Machinery (24:27)
3) Fondle the Frequency (7:10)
4) Slip Into the Vortex (18:14)
5) Sonic Snake (12:00)
6) Lord of Slumber (6:22)
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