OZO - Saturn

OZO - Saturn

Riot Season Records - February 2020

Psych, Jazz, Noise

Rated: ****

Blazing in from some hallucinatory other dimension comes the free jazz/psych-rock trip that is OZO's debut album, Saturn. Comprised of members from UK noisemakers BONG and Drunk In Hell, OZO is a freakout from left field that combines dizzying alto sax, whirlwind drums, and an always grooving, thrumming bass to mindblowing effect. Across five tracks of experimental noise, the instrumental trio moves between rushing, crazed flurries of sound to spaced out lulls that never overstay their welcome. Following the trippy, adrenaline pumping drive of the bassy "Lifeship", title and longest track "Saturn" is a frantic onslaught of fluttering sax and relentless drumming, pinned together by a thick bass even as the sax builds into layers of shrieks and hairpurn turns. Follow-up "Nuclear Fuel", second longest track at over 11 minutes, is a hypnotic epic of nod and rolling, meandering groove. In the first of a series of movements, the active sax shares the spotlight with rock-steady bass, before the track moves into waves of building and crashing drums, ending with the warped bass taking charge and approaching subsonic depth. Final cuts "Slide Way" and "Centuries" continue the chaotic and engrossing journey, culminating with a showstopping series of drum fills and one final guitar/sax eruption. OZO's debut is a strange and daunting adventure, and well worth the dive once you're locked into the freaky flow of the weird and wonderful Saturn.

(Written by Kyle / Shastabeast)

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