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After leaving Can, vocalist Damo Suzuki largely retired from music, in part due to combating illness. He reemerged back onto the music scene first with the Damo Suzuki Band (late 80s - 1990) and more recently with Damo Suzuki's Network. Suzuki has declared a focus on live performance as his exclusive means of musical expression. The two-disc Odyssey captures extended pieces of the Network, recorded at two shows held in late September 1999. I suspect the members of the five-piece backing band listened to their fair share of Can and Hawkwind albums, providing simple riff- or chord-based jams, sometimes coated in echo or whirring space rock synths. Over this, Suzuki provides his distinctive (if somewhat raspier nowadays) vocal stylizations, an inimitable volley of mumbles, shouts, and obsessive chanting. Prime cuts include: "Love Behind Mirror," "Amazing," and perhaps for sheer, drop-dead energy, "Dance of Thousand Tarantulas." Interesting stuff, but ultimately I would only recommend this to the unswerving, undeterred Suzuki Faithful. Keep in mind that when I said 'extended,' I mean that the average track length is over 14 minutes, and overall Odyssey turns out to be greater in length than those triple-LP released in the 1970s. For the more casual fan (like myself), you are more likely to find this a bit overlong, and once you get past "Amazing," you'll probably have had your fill. Of course, for those who have not even yet heard Damo Suzuki or Can before, there are plenty of more representative albums to tackle before getting this one. review by Joe McGlinchey — 2-4-05 —