Here's an EP certainly worth looking out for all Ozric fans. Tidal Flood was a Greek band that was obviously influenced by the Ozrics. I remembered back around 2000 or 2001, I was at Mike Werning's Ozric Tentacles website and it had a link to Tidal Flood comparing them to the Ozrics. Well, that's true, and this 2002 EP proves that. The group consisted of George Karras, George Stavroulakis, Helium Polites, and Vassis Antonaos (well, Polites and Antonaos appeared as guests and were stated as former members on this EP), basically handling the keyboards and drums, with Karras helping on bass as well, plus Stavroulakis handling the guitar. Despite a few disadvantages, like geographical location, and the fact they had no record label to back them up (this EP was released privately), these guys are a solid and professional bunch of musicians who are no slacks.
This EP is stuffed with many of the same Ozric trademarks: lots of great guitar playing, tons of spacy synthesizers (both analog and digital), and some Middle Eastern influences. They never had a flute player like the Ozrics did with John Egan. The music is a bit more restrained than the Ozrics, I doubt George Stavroulakis was trying to be as off the deep end with his guitar playing as Ed Wynne (although he's no slouch himself as his guitar playing can be quite wild too). The techno influences of the Ozrics seem to be absent with Tidal Flood, so if you've been tired of the Ozrics going the techno direction, as they had in the last 10 years, you'll be happy to know that's not the problem here. Hard to believe this band is Greek, if you didn't know, you'd think they were British, as their music is squarely in the British space rock style, specifically that of the Ozrics. I swear, if the Ozrics needed new blood in the band (which they do, they're really having a hell of a time keeping members in the last few years), they could invite some members of Tidal Flood in the band, and they'd fit right in.
There's only five cuts on this EP, about 30 minutes, but top-quality. Most of the cuts are only in the 3-4 minute range, with the exception of "Tidal Mew", which is over 7 minutes. Plus you get multimedia features on this CD, which can be used on your computer, with MP3s of the five cuts included on this CD and AVI video footage of the band performing a couple of songs back in 2000. Warning: make sure you have your AVI files set to Windows Media Player or you won't be able to see this (it doesn't work on QuickTime). By the way, the footage shows the band to be quite young, none of them look over 30. This video footage, as stated, was performed in 2000, two years before Scientific. Unlike the Ozrics, this footage shows that the band isn't using a fancy psychedelic light show (although it would benefit them as they would the Ozrics, but I'm certain Tidal Flood had nowhere the budget of the Ozrics, so they probably couldn't afford the equipment to do such a thing), and as I mentioned from just listening to the music, it shows that they were totally professional musicians who knew what they were doing, no slacks here. Hard to believe this was aired on Greek television. When was the last time you seen the Ozrics on MTV? Never! The two songs featured here were "Helium" and "7 Tide". I have to say the studio version of "7 Tide" off this EP was superior, but then this was recorded earlier, so they hadn't got time yet to improve on it.
Truly one of the great new prog rock bands to appear in the last few years. They really had tons of potential. There were rumors that a full album was to appear but apparently never happened. I can only imagine what they would have been capable of if they did such a thing, an hour's worth of music would have done this band justice. I was further disappointed to see their website had now disappeared. My biggest fear is that they broke up. Everything simply went quiet on this band, and no mention anywhere of what happened.
I'm pretty convinced without the Internet, this band would have not stood even a small chance being recognized. For one thing, they're from Greece (a country that did have some prog rock bands in the '70s, but most were residing in France, because Greece was under a military dictatorship during the crucial years of prog, up to 1974), which don't exactly have a space rock scene going on (unlike Britain, France, or Germany).
Regardless, get this EP, if it means having to order through an import dealer that stocks this CD, you won't be disappointed!
