Ed Wynne & Gre Vanderloo – Tumbling Through the Floativerse

1,932

5 Stars

*The stunning artwork of Floativerse from Valerie Fangman. This cannot just be from her imagination, she has obviously traveled, this girl.*

Audio CD (paid link)

With such a wonderful album title, plus album cover, how could you not fall in love with this album straight away?

Most people who are familiar with music from the genres of space rock/electronica will know Ed Wynne as founder and leader of those musical wizards, The Ozric Tentacles. The Ozric Tentacles were formed in Somerset, England, or some other passing planet in 1983, having released countless albums of sonic waves since then, all very trippy and full of Ed Wynne’s shattering guitar, keyboards, synths and effects. Ed Wynne is one of the few people on planet earth who can replicate aliens and their spaceships sounds, as he commonly hears them.

*There are two things you can tell from looking at this photo of Ed Wynne and Gre Vanderloo. One, they are obviously great mates. Two, they are obviously not from planet Earth.*

For this album he is collaborating with his pal from Holland, Gre Vanderloo, borrowing him from his usual haunt in the band Gracerooms. The results are quite startling.

At first, the music could easily be mistaken for another Ozric Temples album. Their last album was the wonderful “Space for the Earth” in 2020. But on further listening it is far more than that.

This is going to take some explaining!

*Ed Wynne’s profile picture for his Spacenaut license.*

Obviously the music here has all the hallmarks of the Ozric Tentacles, but dig a bit deeper and further waves come jumping out.

The music is a little more upbeat than most Ozric Tentacles music. It’s not actually dance music in the rave sense, although it’s certainly danceable. The drums, the only real touching stone with rock music, are quite dominant, but there is so much going on that most of the time you hardly notice them. They were after all played on an electronic drum machine.

The two guys got together in the Blue Bubble Studios in Fife, Scotland, the Ozric’s own recording studio, with Graceroom’s bassist Paul Klaessen, who does a wonderful job playing all those moving low notes that keep the music going. Silas Neptune, the Ozric’s long term synth player, also makes his presence well-felt, joining in on the musical shenanigans with the two leading lights. The album was engineered and produced by Ed Wynne himself, mastering by Adam Goodlet.

*Erpland, the home to Floativerse, is ruled by a wizard, Lord Ronalf—a kind and benign wizard until you make him angry. Artwork by Hells Bells, another certified Spacenaut.*

As soon as things get moving on opener ‘Oilyvoice,’ you are enticed down the rabbit hole into Erpland for as the keyboards build together, weaving intricate patterns for you to climb through. There are plenty of Ed Wynne guitar lines, solos, and riffs; in fact a couple of times on the album he becomes positively Satriani like, for you to be absorbed into. Although not as dominant as he has been recently on Ozric’s albums, he generously allows Gre Vanderloo to weave his own musical tapestries. The Floativerse soon becomes a place where you quickly lose all sense of gravity. Escapism in the wildest sense, musically.

The full, boisterous sound is full of multi layers of synths, bubbles, and sonic swirls, shimmering outwards as it works its way into your soul.

The vibes are equally fun and adventurous, with some wonderful playful moments, where as in all really good music you can actually hear the musicians enjoying each other’s company.

The music as a whole is certainly outerworldly (Mott word). There are certainly no hooks or choruses. Vocals are entirely unnecessary. If your imagination cannot take you on the journeys the music is taking you, perhaps you should be listening to different music?

Take a tumble down the Floativerse—you might not want to come back.