After recently unearthing one of the year’s top records, in the shape of Golden Jooklo Duo’s “Tropical Trip,” I continued my Portuguese journey via band member Rui Dâmaso. Dâmaso is a force in the field of psychedelic space jams. He added an otherworldly charm to the Jooklo jam, and under the Frango duo (alongside Vitor Lopes), he delivers an twisted tonic. “Families for Space Tunnels” beams 45minutes of relentless psych trance with oodles of hypnotic delay and drawn out synths. Shimmering electronics reverberate amongst traditional free jazz instrumentation – all concocted in a soup of viscous slime. Track by track each jam seeps into each other, forging an unbroken trance. The sound shares similar freeform qualities, with the wonderful AMT record, “Absolutely Freak Out (Zap Your Mind!!)” Chris Pottinger’s music is another point of reference.

Album highlights include the devastating ‘Melros’, which unnerves with a driving tapped beat and synth/vox that ring with dark magic. ‘Regular Love Triangle’ oozes Emeralds-styled synths and chugging percussion to delirious effect. This is such a great late night record to be consumed with inebriated gusto. Sounding like a pagan ritual gone right, Frango are truly out-there and up-there with the best of contemporary psychedelic trance. This year has been a great document for European free music, as recently proved by Diatribes (France), Kemialliset Ystävät (Finland), and Directing Hand (UK). Frango continue this unhinged and surprising movement, placing Portugal as one of the musical locations of choice. Fusing drone, electronic fx, varied instrument jams and vox, Frango whip up a storm of alchemy. Only 24 copies if this fantastic CDR - Investigate now! 7/10 -- Peter Taylor (19 November, 2008)