3rd Ear Experience - Peacock Black (2013)

Well, this is something I thought I’d never see, space rock recorded in the desert!

Simply put, these chaps decided to disconnect themselves from the real world and set up an individual studio in which to document this beast of an album; because at only four tracks that spawn over 75 minutes, this release took me a little while to digest.

At times, it reminded me very much of Causa Sui and their Summer Sessions albums (see the review here); following a similar pattern, 3rd Ear Experience ‘wrote’ their music over the span of just a couple of days, doing so mainly by improvisation. And that, in my humble opinion, is what represents the core of an artist’s imagination: to be able to let yourself go of everything else and just be there for what you really want to achieve is by no means a small feat. 

With regards to the music itself, the four tracks treat the listener from an alternative perspective, as each one seems to represent a movement inside a whole. The first track, The Surface Of Last Scattering, brings out the big guns, being probably the one with the heaviest groove. This is greatly complemented by Peacock Black, second in line and the most chilled-out of the four. One might think that crossing over the twenty two minute mark could get boring, yet I’ve never felt that.

These guys don't seem like boring people, do they?

The other half of the album follows basically in the same fashion, alternating between heavy and slow in the most deft of ways, with light synth touches placed as a background for the instruments. All in all, it’s a release that never disappoints, although in order to fully understand what 3rd Ear Experience accomplished here, one must be completely detached from the world and must leave the album to soak into one’s brain - pretty much what they wanted from us from the start. Personally, I’d recommend listening to this release late at night, just before going to sleep. It actually leaves the impression that you’re in a dry field, stargazing with the best of them. 

With that said and done, we thank the guys once more for providing us with a great listening experience and gladly recommend that you check them out either at cdbaby or iTunes. Meanwhile, here’s a brief excerpt of the title track in order to tickle your music loving senses.