01	White Rhino Tea						05:55
	02	Sploosh!						06:26
	03	Saucers						07:32
	04	Strangeitude						07:31
	05	Bizarre Bazaar						04:06
	06	Space Between Your Ears						07:47
	07	Live Throbbe						07:16
	08	Weirditude (Bonus Track)						05:11

Ed Wynne - guitar, synths, production
Roly Wynne - bass
Eoin Eogan - flute, voice
Joie Hinton - synths, bubbles
Merv Pepler - drums
Paul Hankin - congas on 'Sploosh' & 'Live Trobbe'

Strangeitude Country of Origin: UK
Format: CD
Record Label: Snapper Music
Catalogue #: SMMCD 546
Year of Release: 1991

White Rhino Tea, a remake of a track from the Sliding Gliding Worlds cassette, starts out in much the same way as Eternal Wheel on the Erpland album with a combination of guitar and electronic effects. Great keyboard solo's, powerful percussion, lots of breaks. There might not be a real Rhino in this track but there certainly is an elephant ! A fine opening track with lots of variations.
The next song, Sploosh was actually released on single and was also used in a BMW advertising campaign. It doesn't feature any real guitar or bass but has been fully created by synths and other electronics. There are loads of weird sound effects which give the feel of dripping water in underground caverns. The pace of the song is set by a throbbing keyboard which reminds me of Mike Oldfield's Evacuation from the Killing Fields soundtrack. It's a nice track which could have been slightly shorter as far as I'm concerned.
Saucers has a Spanish feel to it created by acoustic guitars. A flute supports the whole melody. Great track.
The name Strangeitude fits the next track very well. The song starts with synths that create a weird Middle Eastern atmosphere while humming menacing keyboards support them. After 3 minutes the song changes completely. Strange voice effects are added as well as percussion (which sounds like a drum computer to me). More weird babbling follows and the drumming gets more powerful (this might be a real drum kit). As with Sploosh there are no bass or electric guitars in this track.
Bizarre Bazaar starts with acoustic guitar and a powerful bass line. A flute quickly picks up the melody. This uptempo song features some electric guitar solo's as well.
Space Between Your Ears isn't a real reggae song but does feature some dub influences and a mid tempo beat in the first half. The weird chain-saw like noice which was used on Ayurvedism can be heard shortly in this track as well and the electric guitar creates growling and howling noises. Halfway through the song the tempo increases when drums and bass speed up. Eastern flute sounds are added and the tempo increases even further until the song proceeds as a very uptempo tune. Guitar sounds get sharper and more raw as well.
Live Throbbe is a live version of The Throbbe from Erpland and only slightly more interesting than the original. It was used as the B-side for the Sploosh single and added on the first CD issue of Strangeitude as a bonus track.
The bonus track of the remasted edition on this album is another live song called Weirditude. This isn't an alternative version of the title track, as you might expect, but a completely different and rather rare song. It was originally on a compilation cassette with track by othr bands which was given away at a gig at The Kilburn National in London on the 17th of December 1993. It's a very uptempo song with emphasis on electronic (voice) effects and guitar.

Compared to the previous two albums, Strangeitude has even more focus on synths and electronic effects, with two tracks (Sploosh and Strangeitude) even being played by these instruments only. Some people have even said that this album was the closest the band ever came to producing a dance album. The album still features enough of the wonderful Ozric style though in songs like White Rhino Tea, Saucers and Bizarre Bazaar.

The booklet once again features extensive liner notes by Richard Allen, this time focusing on both the tracks and the historical period of the album. The artwork isn't as good as on other Ozric albums. The cover shows a scene in space where trees row out of trees, grow out of trees, etc. The inside of the booklet also has a two page picture of the band. The back cover features a nice drawing of the Pongmaster staring in amazement at a very weird sculpture.

Conclusion: 8- out of 10.

Ed Sander




STRANGEITUDE
Written by Magnus Florin

Ok, Ozric Tentacles with influences from, everything! This album I found quite spacey, but aren't they all (hehe). The first introducing track, "White Rhino Track", had elements of both YES, progrock in general and a very atmospheric feel to it. I think that this is what I really need from OT, this liquid feel of floating. Sometimes it's just shown in a better and clearer way. What I also would want from this music are vocals. Since this music is instrumental it can easily get kind of boring in the long run, and a singer with some Egyptian/babylon/ofra hazy feel would definitely get the thing going even more. Inside this album I found a picture of the band, that is taken with out of a normal point of view. Other pics that I've seen have all been quite blurry and freaked out (hehe). Well, Ozrics has done it again. Check 'em out!