THE TEAR GARDEN CRYSTAL MASS ALBUM NETTWERK, MNW RELEASE: OCTOBER 24, 2000, FEBRUARY, 2001 (SCANDINAVIA) REVIEW: JANUARY 16, 2001

"Crystal Mass" is the latest result of the collaboration between Canadians Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy, Download and others) and Edward Ka-spel, Ryan Moore and other members of the Dutch band Legendary Pink Dots. In spite of the strong line up, the album doesn't manage to keep my attention for more than ten minutes. And it's all very puzzling.
"Crystal Mass" starts off with classic pop, followed by some sort of psychedelica that unnoticeable float into a mess of dull ambient rock with guitar solos that only could make Mark Knopfler envy. I imagine that if Vince Clarke, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead and Tricky ever got together over a weekend making a record, something like this would be the result. 58 minutes of headache. The album is poorly worked through, fragmentised and it sounds more like demos for three or four separate albums.
It's not all bad though. The first two songs are according to me the best and most high quality songs on the album. They get me in a good mood and are the tracks most likely to be played on my stereo again. The lyrics are of high class allthrough the album and I like Edward Ka-spel's voice. Unfortunately they didn't have material for a complete album. Most of the music shouldn't have been released, at least not as a full length CD. Less is more.

ANDERS WIIK