One of the best band ever
Rebecca Galdo | Marietta, Ga United States | 12/06/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"i think that this band is one of the most unique and inspiring band around everyone needs to check out this great cd"
Impressive progressive space rock
Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 08/05/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love this stuff - hence my frothing 5 star review of Spacefolds 7. These guys definitely deserve it though; not only do they craft excellent proggy space rock, but they are deeply principled as well. In fact, the band's label (Eternity's Jest Records) is giving away copies of the third "official" release Drop (2001) with every order placed. Evidently, Drop deals with the negative impacts of consumerism and they decided that they could not (in good conscience) make a profit off the album. In that Drop is not available on Amazon, I dumped a quick review of Drop in here along with Spacefolds 7.
Spacefolds 7 (2001) *****
This album is pretty impressive in that all of the music is improvised in the studio - I say impressive, because the pieces sound pre-composed and there are very few botched notes. In terms of styles, I am inclined to call this progressive space rock. Although ambient, spacey textures provided on banks of very organic sounding synthesizers dominate the overall sound, there are also symphonic flourishes that I associate with progressive rock.
Generally, the rock aspect is provided by the bassist (who prefers a trebly sound), the drummer and the guitarist. I like the tone colors the guitarist selects; he emphasizes long, sustained tones and favors a clean sound (it sounds something like a Roland jazz chorus). The drummer also has a distinctive and sharp snare drum sound - it really cuts through the mix. This music is all instrumental and with the exception of Green Star Shooting (10:59), the tunes are pretty short. That is OK though - they say exactly what they need to say in that time. In general, these guys are good players and work well as an ensemble.
The sound quality is good and the CD comes in a simple cardboard sleeve with no liner notes. The cover features a star cluster that reminded me somewhat of the cover to my old Islands LP (King Crimson, 1971).
All in all, this is great proggy space rock that is heavily influenced by 1970s groups including 1973-1974 period Gong, Pink Floyd, and possibly even Hawkwind. Comparisons with contemporaneous groups plugging away in a similar vein might include Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, The Orb and Nodens Ictus amongst other space rock/electronica groups. This stuff is highly recommended to those folks that enjoy space rock and electronica.
Drop (2001) ****
Drop is a little different from Spacefolds 7 and features quirky and short vocal tracks in amongst the proggier space rock pieces. The vocal tracks are essentially very psychedelic and spacey pop tunes that are sandwiched at more or less regular intervals between instrumental tracks. The way the different pop tunes develop over the course of the CD is interesting however; they seem to get successively more complex and culminate with the lengthy (16:42) closing track Blanket Hill that features a mixture of spoken word passages and the progressive space rock that (I am guessing) defines the Quarkspace sound. It is worth noting that there is a brief moment of "dead space" that may lead you to believe that Blanket Hill has ended. It has not. Wait it out - the closing instrumental section is very proggy.
Although I generally liked this album, the vocal tracks do sound a bit amateurish at times, and the raving, lengthy diatribe on Blanket Hill was a bit...overbearing. I am forgiving however, and the listening experience was not totally ruined for me - besides, the vocal tracks have their own quirky charm. I also liked some of the trance/techno influences that popped up here and there too - it reminded me somewhat of The Orb in fact. Of course, the piano and mellotron (samples?) did not hurt one bit either.
The CD comes in a simple white paper sleeve. I was able to make my own CD case however, with just a few simple copy and paste exercises and an old jewel case."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
