The uninitiated may well perceive Ozric Tentacles’ 32 years of psychedelic service as the relentless, aimless and diarrhetic squawking of drug-addled hippies, but while there is a grain of truth in that analysis, it is equally true that the band’s inspired blending of semi-improvised, Hillage-esque space rock and the bleeps and squelches of mesmeric electronica has stood the test of time extraordinarily well.
In fact, as with every one of their countless albums, Technicians Of The Sacred frequently sounds like some sublime, transcendental missive from a more peaceful, cerebral future where the Union Jack has been tie-dyed and maximum societal chillitude has been achieved via some magical consensus.
Less experimental and bullish than 2011’s synapse-popping Paper Monkeys, this drifts majestically from one amorphous, cross-pollinated jam to another, never descending into glutinous self-indulgence and always audibly thrilled by its own surfeit of laterally conjured ideas.
The finest moments – beatific opener The High Pass, the knowingly goofy Zingbong – are as strong as any in the Ozrics’ canon. In its entirety, this is a heroically unfashionable but consistently hypnotic joy./o:p
