HARMONIE (France) no. 33, Spring 1998, p. 97

Ed Macan’s Hermetic Science

First release by this particularly original and arresting California combo. Sweeping away the illusory cliches and cookie-cutter demonstrations of a lazy retro movement, the band, fronted by excellent multi-instrumentalist Ed Macan, moves into the breach excavated by Pierre Moerlen-epoch Gong, and here they propose a resolutely atypical musical discourse.

Expertly structured around marimba and vibraphone, which have been enthroned kings of this sonic landscape, and applauded furiously by devil-may-care drums and acoustic piano, the eight tracks engraved on this whirlwind of digital experimentation reveal a truly remarkable maturity of writing.

Brilliantly virtuosic (the superb cover of "Mars, the Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst or the cleverly linked "Cheetah"/"Infinite Space," which must face the formidable problem of bridging the personalities of Darryl Way and Keith Emerson), without ever descending into the chokehold of musical masturbation, the musical gambols of Ed Macan and his talented cohorts stretch beyond the limits of mere imitation of Gong, Art Zoyd, Simon Steensland, or Univers Zero.

This man, moreover the author of 1996’s definitive ouevre Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture, decidedly has many talents.

Bertrand Pourcheron