It is not that unusual that a band changes musical direction between albums. Danish newcomers The Univerzals, however, changes musical direction several times during their debut album. A couple of times they even do it within a song!

Take the opening track ‘Spellbound’ for instance: It starts out with a whiny saxophone and at first sounds an awful lot like the soundtrack to a 70’s soft porn movie, then a marching drum and a weird-ish choir sets in making it sound more like the soundtrack to a Robert Rodriguez-flick… With a Middle Eastern touch. And suddenly out of nowhere a guy with an electric guitar enters the party, all hell breaks loose and the track goes out with a hard rock bang.

The Univerzals describe their music as “acid punk metal meets ethnoavantgarde ska over a nice cup of New Age tea” and insists that the songs have materialized themselves in dreams, a tantra ashram and a Cuban prison…

Granted, ‘Ocean Of Light’ is at times more quirky than actually brilliant but between all the craziness there are a couple of standout tracks – one of the best being ‘Glass Skyscraper’ featuring some awesome guitar work from former Sort Sol axeman Peter Peter Schneidermann.

Genre: Rock/World
Who: The Univerzals
Album: Ocean Of Light
Label: Gateway Music
Year: 2009
Country: Denmark
Language: English

Recommended tracks:
Spellbound – Glass Skyscraper – Morning Star