his is the seventh album from OOTUA and is also planned to be the last, ending a journey which started all the way back in 2012. There have been a few line-up changes over the years, but the one which appears here has been constant for a while, namely Martin Archer (woodwind, keyboards, software instruments), Steve Dinsdale (drums, keyboards), Lorin Halsall (acoustic and electric double basses, electronics), Yvonna Magda (violin and electronics), Andy Peake (piano, keyboards), Walt Shaw (drums, percussion, electronics), Jan Todd (vocals, voices, melodies, electronics, guzheng, electric Harp-E, lute harp, cross strung harp, hulusi flutes, metal Noisebox, waterphones, found sound recordings, electronic samples) and Terry Todd (bass guitar). As with previous releases, basic tracks, either using simple compositional ideas or freely improvised, were recorded live in the studio by the full band over a two-day period. These were then radically edited and collaged by Martin Archer and were finally overdubbed and arranged by both Martin and Jan Todd working together to create something which captures the spontaneity of improvisation but somehow also seems deeply scored and rehearsed.
I mentioned the late Robin Taylor when I last reviewed these guys, and I am again reminded of the approach he sometimes took with Taylor’s Free Universe where the band recorded an improvised show, and then he would take the tracks back and make new music from them. One of the major differences between them is that Robin would often look to move the music even more into the extreme avant garde, where Martin and Jan have taken the raw energy and strangeness which comes about when there are no boundaries and have created something which is fresh, beautiful and enthralling. The more I have played this the more I have become part of the music, as it feels like a living and breathing being which wants to caress and invite the listener inside, but once there time has no meaning as the music swirls, the bass tries to keep us grounded, and the voices are part of the fabric, tantalising and beautiful.
The result is another wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable album which mixes avant garde, RIO and eclectic with psychedelia while they even provide us with a reworked version of Sun Ra’s “That’s How I Feel”. On the very first album they provided the world with a mission statement, “It is the job of the progressive artist to propose an alternative reality, and preferably one in which all notions of common sense have been completely eradicated.” They have kept to that and achieved their aims, and if this is truly the final album from the band they are going out on a high. 8/10
By Kev Rowland
