Artist................... Ozone Quartet
Album.....................Cloud Nineology
Label.....................Flat Five
Genre.....................Instrumental Rock
Release...................04/02/2006
Street....................xx/xx/2005
Encoder...................LAME 3.97 beta
Quality...................--aps 44.1kHz/joint
# NAME TiME
01. Cottonhead 02:46
02. Flying in Circles 02:44
03. Room #7 03:33
04. Fresh Blood 03:54
05. Surge 03:00
06. Stash 04:12
07. Lift 04:28
08. Freak of Nature 03:49
09. Thief 06:16
10. Grasshopper 04:51
11. Hypnosis 05:15
12. The Barbarian 04:49
Ozone Quartet was originally called Cloud Nine, and
had to change their name due to trademark laws. So was
born Ozone Quartet, and Cloud Nineology represents the
period of 1992 to 1998 in the history of the band. If
you are not familiar with the music of Ozone Quartet,
these guys play a very majestic instrumental medley of
progressive rock and jazz-fusion stylings, sort of like
a marriage of Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, and
the Dixie Dregs. The first four tunes on the CD were
recorded in 1992, and see the early sound of the band
as it was starting to take shape. As always, the band
is led by the soaring violin work of Hollis Brown, and
she is all over songs like "Fresh Blood" and "Flying in
Circles" alongside the crunchy guitar work of Graham
Fry, the nimble Chapman Stick grooves from Wayne
Leechford, and the acrobatic drum work of Steve Smith.
The guitar tone of Fry is thick and heavy on the songs
from 1994 like "Surge" and "Stash", as he adds an
almost metal edge to the decidely fusion feel that is
given by Brown's violin flights. The band goes for a
more rootsy jazz touch on "Lift", a real beautiful
piece, and weave intricate guitar & violin lines on the
slightly heavy and complex prog number "Freak of
Nature". Cut to 1995 for the songs "Thief" ,
"Hypnosis", and "Grasshopper", three more songs later
featured on the bands Fresh Blood album. Here, Ozone
Quartet were really hitting their stride
compositionally speaking as well as musically, as the
songs are extremely melodic and full of many twists and
turns. The addition of new drummer Fran Dyer also
helped quite a bit, as his intricate style on "Thief"
adds an almost ethnic feel to the music. "The
Barbarian" of course is an ELP cover song that was to
be featured on a tribute album that was never released.
Here is where we see the appearance of new guitarist
Kenny Thompson, who joined for the Nocturne album in
1999, and was later replaced by Jeremy Shaw. "The
Barbarian" is an interesting tune for Ozone Quartet to
record, as since they do not have a keyboard player,
Brown, Leechford, and Thompson fill in the gaps where
Keith Emerson added his arsenal.
Cloud Nineology is a nice retrospective of the early
years of Ozone Quartet, and would be a great place for
those new to the band to start. Fans of the group will
of couse need to add this to their collection while
they wait patiently for a new recording from the band.
We use LAME 3.97 now, which is approved.
49:37 min
70,4 Mb