When you discover that this LP consists of two side-long tracks entitled 'Hypnotic Brain Cloud Float' and 'Mystical Bamboo Garden Cultivation' I think you know it's gonna be business as usual for Expo 70. Both tracks were recorded live in the Autumn of 2010; one in concert, one for a radio session. Both these tracks are Justin Wright performing solo, but it doesn't seem to make a huge difference to the already-minimal Expo 70 sound. On side A it's all ponderous drones and synth swoops and whooshes with a pedal note bass plod keeping what time there is. There's some really beautiful top end tones creaking through the warm rumble and plenty going on as it builds and recedes with a real organic grace. The track's closing passages have some beautiful big organ chords sounding all echoey and expansive. What I like about this guy's stuff is that even though it sits confidently within the 'ambient drone' umbrella, he seems to have a real appreciation of the need to keep things moving forward and I never find myself getting bored. On to side B, 'Mystical Bamboo Garden Cultivation' begins with a weird disjointed stabbing keyboard line which morphs into a curious, spacious groove before gradually being blended in on itself...then there's this awesome phased bass fuzz that comes in (On the cover it says he "performs electric guitar, Moog and analog drum machine" but some of these sounds he's making are so otherworldly they're really hard to place), and then that's joined by loops of chiming guitar, gradually getting more prominent and melodic until he's knocking out a brief '70s stoner jam before going back into cosmic, pulsing drones...then there's some microbeats come in, and a totally Hawkwind-esque high-pitched swirling noise, and he's back to a bit of that windswept '70s soloing. This is great stuff, densely layered and focused meditations to take your brain somewhere interesting. (Normann records)