After more than 30 years of instrumental prog-fueled freak-outs, Ed Wynne could be forgiven for phoning one in, especially after Colorado wildfires wiped out his home (and miles of irreplaceable Ozric Tentacles archives) in 2012. But the beloved band’s 15th studio album is actually long on ideas and low on filler; in fact, it’s their first double album since 1990’s Erpland, and finds Wynne and company stretching back into some of the fusion rock modes that made Jurassic Shift such an enduring staple. Granted, Ozric is known for its serpentine grooves, and Technicians of the Sacred—the title and overarching theme being a riff on Mayan astrology—is packed with exploratory polyrhythms, from the drum-and-bassy “Changa Masala” to the tribal-trance sheen of “Epiphlioy,” with newly minted drummer Balázs Szende sowing his wild oats. Digging deeper, the guitar-heavy “Zingbong” somehow calls up Crimson-esque Frippertronics, while “Far Memory” and “Rubbing Shoulders with the Absolute” hit ambient space with an experimental flair that smacks of the group’s earliest efforts. They’re not quite as crusty, to use the Brit coinage, as they used to be, but this Tentacles lineup has gelled now to the point where rocking out, cosmically and consciously, takes a refreshing front seat.