Mandragora - Pollen

1998 England

Notes originally published in the Outer Music Diary on January 12, 2005. Edited on September 19, 2007.

Mandragora started out as a typical "UK festival" space rock act. They continually improved up through "Temple Ball", which is one of the finest in the Ozric/Gong style of jamming guitar fronted cosmic rock. Then came "Pollen", an album that turned off many of their loyal following. To me, it's the perfect balance between Ozric Tentacles style space rock and techno music. This is a highly composed, thought-out release, with a variety of real instruments played by numerous folks. This is not just a bunch of samples and techno beats, not even close. By far the best album I've heard that occupies this music genre. Considerably different from the bands earlier work which was much more true to a space rock style. Sadly, it appears the band has disappeared altogether since this release.

See more reviews here