HEAVILY INFLUENTIAL CLASSIC DEBUT ALBUM FROM OZRIC TENTACLES
A raggle-taggle, unpretentious assortment of punk-infused, dreadlocked hippies, the Ozric Tentacles wove psychedelic audio-tapestries that captured the almost dangerous musical diversity of the free festival scene, blending acid rock with dub, reggae, ethnic world music & electronic, jazzy experimentation. This was the soundtrack to the herb-fragranced, alternative lifestyle that wound its way around country lanes looking for a place to set up & party, away from the psychoses of corporate life.
Fittingly, the band was formed at the Stonehenge Festival in 1983. Ed & Roly Wynne, Nick Van Gelder (Tig) & Gavin Griffiths (at that point known as the Bolshem People) were joined for a jam by Joie ‘Ozroonuiculator’ Hinton - a synth wizard who had just returned from India loaded with ethnic sound recordings that he had collected.
At some point, having attracted an audience, someone asked what the name of the new ensemble was & Ed responded ‘Ozric Tentacles’ mainly because he couldn’t think of anything else. The name stuck & a mainstay of the UK festival scene for the next 30 years was born.
Without any desire or need for a record label, it was the Ozric Tentacles' cassette releases that funded & supported their journey through the ‘80’s. These simple artefacts with photocopied inserts & rainbow spray-painted labels were sold in vast quantities at festivals, on the merchandise table at Club Dog & through a mail order outlet called Better Days Tape distribution.
‘Erpsongs’ was the band’s debut album in 1985 & was only released through cassette originally. It contained studio recordings made in 1984 & 85 & didn’t come with a printed track listing & whilst live favourites such as the high energy ‘Velmwend’ & more relaxed ‘Dots Thots’ were easily identifiable the contents remained a mystery for many years until the Vitamin Enhanced CDs clarified the running order.
‘Erpsongs’ remains a firm favourite amongst fans, establishing the band’s distinctive ‘70’s influenced swirling space rock jams while maintaining their very original own sound.
