SATURNIA: THE GLITTER ODD Cranium (CRM006)
Saturnia from Portugal are multi-instrumentalists Luis Simões and Francisco Rebelo. The duo combines 60’s psych and 70’s prog to modern ambient and dance beats in an interesting way. Many songs remind me of Pink Floyd, but as a whole the band sounds quite a lot like the German band Electric Orange, whose musical concept is a very similar to Saturnia’s. The guys are obviously vinyl freaks, as the CD sounds like a vinyl with its beginning and ending clicks and surface noise in the middle of the tracks.The CD in itself looks like a miniature vinyl, and there’s a picture of a turntable on the inner tray of the CD. Fun! Other option would, of course, have been to simply release it on vinyl… Pretty cool idea, anyway.The Glitter Odd includes a lot of different instruments like guitars,
organs, synths, piano, theremin, sitar, tabla, bass, machine rhythms, gongs and vocals, that rather low in the mix. The opener ”Chrysalis” is the most up-tempo track on the album and has some sitar, tabla, vocals, groovy organs and weird effects. One of my favourites. (Will have to play this at our club for sure). This one maximises the Electric Orange feel. ”Bliss” is slower, hypnotic and pretty instrumental. ”A Trick of Light” with only some singing of the birds, theremin and effects is a nice interlude.”Azimuth/Menadel” is a track divided in two parts the first part being a bit oppressive (like The Wall), while the mood is freed in the end with the sound of water, beautiful flute sound and Tangerine Dream –styled synth pattern. “Organo” is a organ-lead instrumental with hip hop/drum & bass comp,sitar and theremin. A bit dull, in my opinion. The moody “Borealis”, which starts and ends with morse code, includes some airy guitars. The peaceful dance beat reminds me of the British ambient band Astralasia, with whom Saturnia also shares the font of their logo. A fine track. The last one, the title track, is a psychedelic, Klaus Shultze-like sound collage. With this one you can surely get “out there somewhere”… Includes some very odd synthetic sounds and is one of the highlights of the album.You can order the album from www.cranium.co.nz, and you can also listen to some samples there. This is an interesting band that is really worth
checking out.
Colossus magazine - DarkSanttu
