Citrus Cloud Cover

Citrus Cloud Cover brought Escapade attention from outside of their local East Coast. This double album from 1998 got very positive reviews, usually for the right reasons. Recorded for the most part in the studio over the course of 14 months, it features a strong selection of space rock-based group improvisations. The music tends to be more jam-oriented, even ambient and slightly free-form, than what you'd expect from a space rock outfit. Insistent pulses and sweeping, flying-saucer-like synthesizers are rare and uncharacteristic. Instead, Escapade relies on strong listening skills and gradual transformations. On the other hand, it lacks some pathos and extremes — not to say the music is cold or emotionless, but even in its harder-rocking passages it still feels self-aware and restrained. Disc two is far superior in quality, mostly thanks to two outstanding improvisations: "Turtle Chase" (17 minutes) and "The Sunlight. It Hurts My Eyes" (31 minutes). In the latter, Paul Hilzinger, John Ortega, Joey Murphy, Paul Casanova, and Hadley Kahn achieve the perfect blend of tortured sounds, driving basslines, and a sense of pace. Intelligent, creative space rock doesn't get much better than this. But one cannot help but wonder why this is a two-CD set — a mouthful to swallow. The second disc would have made an excellent stand-alone album. ~ François Couture, Rovi