For their second full-length of the year Eternal Tapestry ring the changes by recording an album as a conceptual whole, rather than assembling the final work from a bunch of different tapes laid down over time. It’s not the most audibly obvious of shifts in approach but the result does offer hints of actual composition rather than the plug-in-and-see-where-we-go psychedelic groove excursions that the band is best known for. Tucked away as the last track is even the closest they’ve got to a proper song, although more of that later.
Certainly the opener “When I Was In Your Mind” suggests business as usual, with the song quickly building up a churning riff that the lead guitars use a base to fly off into the visionary realms. It’s the longest track here by some way, and the band get so locked in it feels like it could go on a lot longer – the rhythm section tread carefully between tight and loose, rigid and sloppy as they power the track along whilst sympathetically fitting around the guitar excursions.
It is a technique that’s repeated elsewhere, the snare taking a pounding as the lead guitar plays a raga-inflected solo on “Alone Against Tomorrow”, whilst “Apocalypse Troll” oddly channels The Isley Brothers’ “Summer Breeze” into a brisk riffy excursion, with a twin guitar attack trying to out-do each other over a rolling bass line and Keith Moon-esque drum fills. So far, so good, and it’s arguably the gauzier numbers such as “When Gravity Fails” (more reflective, a pause for breathe amid the heavy and heady sounds) that suffer in such company, tending to drift away rather than hold the attention.
A World Out Of Time ends strongly, though, with the sparser sounding “The Currents Of Space” and the psychedelic folk-out of “Sand Into Rain” which could have ended up on any of those post-Syd, pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd albums; the acoustic guitars, and saxophone hook, offering a surprising amount of structure. It’s in contrast to not only what has gone before but pretty much everything that Eternal Tapestry have released (or, at least, that I’ve heard, for theirs is a sizeable discography). Given the calibre of musicians in ET and the number of projects they are involved in outside of the band, it might that easing down the psychedelic blow-outs in favour of more composed works might put a little extra spring in their step; as powerful a unit as they currently are, “Sand Into Rain” offers up a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. (Jeremy Bye)
a closer listen 