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Ubermodo — So Very Far from Home
(Bandcamp Uncle Lard no#, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-04-15

So Very Far from Home Cover art

Ubermodo is a rather strange name for a band, but in fact it isn’t a band, instead being the name of the solo project by Tim Lane, the composer, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist of the British band Stealing the Fire, whom we have covered many times in the pages of Exposé. On So Very Far from Home,  the third full-length Ubermodo release and an entirely instrumental endeavor, Lane composed all six cuts and played all of the instruments, with the exception of the drums, which were handled by Tim Dew. Growing up listening to many great 70s prog bands as well as classic electronic music from the same period, Lane makes no bones about it, his goal here is to produce something similarly epic and powerful, and to these ears he certainly seems to have succeeded. Without wasting any time he gets right into a space-rock groove with the opener “Warlock of the Outer Planes,” which after a spiraling intro delves straight into some power grooves seemingly informed by classic Hawkwind, Ozrics, or even Hillage-era Gong, but throughout its seven-and-a-half minutes the spirit of classic prog is never very far away. Second up is the ten-minute title track, where a spacy electronic influenced guitar intro eventually morphs into an intense groove with a synth edge amid a powerful melody. Other standouts include “Beyond the Bones of Eden,” another long one that takes its time to develop, but ultimately ends up in spacerock territory not far from where early Ozrics might have taken it, and the more speedy groove of “The Vagabond Returns,” where keyboards and guitars duel for the dominant melody within a classic psychedelic-meets-proggy framework. Closer “Behold! The Burning Sword” is a stirring atmospheric piece that winds down the album nicely, yet still offers a powerful and spacy guitar edge. Sometimes lengthy instrumental workouts don’t stand up in the absence of vocals, but that’s certainly not the case with So Very Far from Home — it seems Lane knows instinctively how far an idea can go onward and still remain interesting to a listener’s ears.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Ubermodo / Tim Lane

More info
http://timlanemusic.bandcamp.com/album/so-very-far-from-home

 

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