FEATURED CD - Odyssice : Moondrive Plus

[Duncan Glenday]

Per my favorite reviewer:

Bastiaan Peeters of Odyssice must be sick of people telling him that he sounds just like Andy Latimer. But listen to this guitar-dominant symphonic instrumental music and you'll understand why so much literature describes his music that way. You won't confuse the two if you're intimately familiar with Camel's music, but you'll understand the comparison.

Moondrive was originally an EP released in early 1997. Moondrive Plus is a remaster of the original, with two bonus tracks and some PC-playable multimedia stuff. The music here is guitar oriented symphonic instrumental-only rock. Not metalesque like a Satriani, and not elevator music like the later Camel releases – it is mature symphonic, very melodic rock. This is music that would be equally at home in the background as it would in a deeply focused, uninterrupted listening session.

The first 4 tracks (which are the re-mastered part) are tied together by sound effects in which someone gets into a car, drives off, zooms around corners, arrives at his destination and turns the car off. All these effects probably add up to less than a minute and do not intrude on the listening experience. In fact if you're a car guy, the sound of that tight euro-sports engine snicking through the gears will also be music to your ears. Based on these sounds and on the cover art, the idea is obviously to put you in the mind of a pleasurable night time drive. Another observation supporting the idea of a moonlit drive: In a few passages on the first track, the drums and bass produce a rhythm very reminiscent (deliberately?) of Golden Earring's Radar Love. Remember it? "I've been driving all night my hands wet on the wheel…" – and that simple but driving rhythm.

The sound on the album is mainly guitar over keyboards, and if that sounds boring, rest assured – this is music that you can play many times over. The slow, incredibly pure guitar solos rank with the very best of the David Gilmours, the Joe Satrianis, the Steve Hacketts, and – yes – the Andy Latimers of the world. Highly recommended.

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/revi...ontent&id=1129

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

the description sounds interesting enough... gonna play the samples when I have time

[bob_32_116]

How is the name pronounced? Oddis - ice? Oddis - eechay?

The opening bit of the frist track sounds to me like a mixture of Gary Moore and Golden Earring - but much better than either of them.

[interbellum]

I only have the original "Moondrive". For me that was just enough. Great music, a bit Camel-like at times. The "plus" for me was more of the same, but I can imagine people like that, just as all their later albums.

More information: http://www.odyssice.com/

[moecurlythanu]

They were on some comps back in the late 80s, iirc. I thought they were pretty good, but wasn't moved to pick up anything by them.

[JKL2000]

I actually reviewed an album of theirs - I forget for whom. Maybe PE?

[JKL2000]

Thanks for making this the featured CD - I just filled in my Odyssice collection. I knew just the vendor to go to for these - Kinesis!

[ChrisXymphonia]

I am not sure how to pronounce it exactly but I do remember one of the members hearing it say like OH-di-sise (di like in the first halve of dinner, sise like size but an s in the place of the z). However, I always thought it to be oo-DIE-sis (sis like in the first half of sister).

I really love this band but they are almost on a one-release-per-decade schedule http://www.discogs.com/artist/2471087-Odyssice. Last I heard they were without a bassplayer (again) and I think there was something about water damage to their studio or rehearsal space.

Bastiaan Peters gets compared a lot to Andy Latimer but in the way he uses sustain I also hear Steve Hackett in him. But what a lot of people might not know is that ever since their first full album Impression he also uses guitarsynth in a very tasteful style. Seen him use it on several tracks live where he has all kinds of oriental sounds coming from his guitar and it gets even more interesting when he mixes those sounds with his 'normal' lead guitar sound, like he does on this track from their 2nd full album Silence: