This band came across my Apple Music suggestions today, and right away I was excited to take a listen. This band is a solo project of Iceland musician Hakon Adalsteinsson, who was also in Singapore Sling, another great band I’ve listened to this year, and he is also touring with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, which is definitely one of my favorite bands I’ve ever listened to. I’ve checked out many side/solo projects of members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, such as Joel Gion, The Dilettantes, as well as Sky Parade; those are all great groups and I’m excited to hear more from that related crowd.
“At Heaven’s Gate” has a great familiarity to it in terms of how vocals are laid out in the song. It’s got almost a shoegazing feel to it – can’t believe I haven’t written about any shoegazing albums yet. I love that raw electric guitar in the background. I can’t understand the vocals at all, but it’s creating an almost dream-like air to the song. That guitar has some attitude to it. The drums have an awesome effect to them; that snare really rings out. And that bass goes extremely well with the drums, really driving the song forward. It almost reminds me of The Warlocks a bit.
“Gloria” has almost a cowboyish stand-off feel to it. The vocals are a bit more comprehensible to this track, but still pretty difficult to understand. That being said, the vocals add a great deep texture to the song. I really like the percussion. I think there’s a tambourine that really adds a great feeling to the track (perhaps Joel Gion? I’m not sure who played on the track).
“The Third Sound” has an awesome guitar intro. Wow, I really dig this track. The track feels very heavy, yet moves along as though it’s light as a feather. That guitar in it is awesome though. Not really technically impressive in what’s being played, the guitar really shines with the effects and layering and arrangement relative to the rest of the song. That synth that kind of drones along almost provides the song the little bit of structure it needs to persist when combined with the percussion.
“Re-Elevation” has a bit happier feel to it than the previous tracks so far. The vocals are used completely different on this album than a lot of bands might – instead of impressing with vocal range or certain notes, the vocals are arranged into the song with certain effects such that they fill the role of vocals as well as multiple background instruments. There’s no real lead to any song that I’ve noticed, be it guitar, vocals, percussion, or bass. Everything forms a nice musical conglomeration that builds off each other to form a chaotic yet cohesive sound. That being said, there’s an awesome swishy guitar solo towards the end that doesn’t really step out in front of the other instruments, but almost solos behind them in a really unique fashion.
The transition to “Love / Perfected By Death” is buttery smooth. Part of that guitar solo I mentioned for the previous song may have even been the intro to this one. This track, at this point, however, is a bit mellower, and is almost playing songs from another dimension. That guitar is really awesome in it. I’m pretty stoked on this album, not going to lie.
“Long Way from Home” has almost a country/western feel to it. Wow, the feeling to this one is really awesome. I feel like this song was written picturing an old-fashioned cowboy riding some dusty trails, meandering through life. Wow, that harmonica is absolutely wicked. There seems to be an awesome amount of music packed into this album. I’d have never guessed that the mastermind behind this album is Icelandic based on the sound in the album.
“J.S.D.” has a great BJM feel to it – though it reminds me considerably of the Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe album. There’s so much space between beats, that the bass fills with some rolling bass lines to keep it going, then when the tambourine hits, the beat feels incredibly strong. I’ve been trying to figure out what genre this album could be considered, and to me it seems to be almost a somewhat dark pseudo-shoegazing neo-psychedelic garage rock album. I would even go as far as to call it anti-folk. This chaotic outro is absolutely awesome, though.
The transition to “In My Dreams” is quite smooth, dark, and very ethereal in nature. Those lyrics set up an awesome guitar solo that is so discordant at times that I keep getting more interested and listening closer. This album is incredibly interesting to me, and I am very happy to happen across it today.
“Going Down” has a great driving feel to the rhythm section. That guitar gets kind of strange sometimes, and I really dig it. The transition to “Further Down” is such another smooth transition. This track has almost an industrial feel to it – like something from a Nine Inch Nails record. The guitars are kind of starting to drone on in the background. It feels like it’s building up to some huge finish. The percussion comes in just drives the song forward even further with very smooth and spaced out beats. The entire song is slowly building up louder and more complex in layers. This track almost gets a little spacey at times as certain layers dissipate and others become more prevalent. No vocals to the track it would seem, but the tune was incredibly interesting to listen to as it was playing.
I am extremely pleased to have listened to this album tonight. If you dig The Brian Jonestown Massacre at all, or are into shoegazing music at all, you will hopefully enjoy the album at least as much as I did. I’m going to listen to more of The Third Sound soon. Definitely extraordinarily interesting to listen to.
-A