The final transmission in the Master Musicians’ uniformly impressive Totem triptych begins with the troupe at their pseudo-ceremonial peak, orchestrating ornate rites and bouts of divine communication with cartoon deities. Quasi- Eastern themes pervade, the scent of bitter incense overwhelming and often illusory, the group clearly still wrapped in their decorative game of cultural smoke and mirrors. The Sun City Girls’ Alan Bishop reprieves his show-stealing turn from Totem One with a couple of welcome vocal contributions but, this time, he’s usurped by the gloriously mournful strings of 6,000 Years Of Darkness, an emotive composition of cinematic compass by the group’s Jim Davis.
As if to acknowledge the eternal span of their occult reach, Master Musicians conclude the series by filtering a form of retro-modernism, one where Cluster write the universal anthem for a withering planet and members of Hawkwind and Trans Am sit on the global Senate heatedly debating ancient spaceman theory.
