THIRD

The latest release from this Boston band. The first two albums were one-song albums but this is divided into separate tracks although sometimes they are segued together. Originally they were an instrumental trio of guitar-bass-drums but have expanded their line-up to include an extra guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and a saxophone player. Before this album they had toured and recorded an EP with former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki. Their music is a mix of space rock, post/math, fusion and heavy rock. Here the music is very spacey and loose sounding. The lyrics are sometimes hard to make out and sometimes there is just wordless vocals. The production is lo-fi which complements the music well.

"Master Destroyer I" is based around a nine note arpeggio on guitar. The bass is busy but repetitive. Some guitar soloing after halfway. This runs right into "Master Destroyer II" which starts to mellow out a bit with some speed-altered vocals. The guitar playing seems to be more improvised and solo-like. The drumming gets a little looser as some spacey synths appear. Here there is a catchy vocal part you can make out which goes "I can't believe my eyes..." Some rockin' guitar chords at the end.

"Butterfly Mirror" changes things a bit with some jazzy bass playing, harmonized vocals and all kinds of spaciness in the background. A catchy wordless vocal melody towards the end. "Dreamland I" starts in psych-punk territory. Features some boogie-rock guitar soloing. Some riffs which turn into shredding before "Dreamland II" starts with altered talking and echoed sax playing. The guitar soloing is bluesy and the bass is once again in jazz mode. Organ appears towards the end before the vocals get very Mars Volta sounding.

"Donzo's Montreux" has some spacey synth soloing, busy bass, jazzy drums and improvised guitar plucking. A killer guitar solo is joined by another one at the same time! Some start/stop playing over a guitar freak-out leads to the very 'post-rock' sounding finale "Sleepwalker". More laid-back than the rest of the album. Post-punk bass playing with picked guitar playing (mostly arpeggios). Some spacey wordless vocals and cymbals as well. The sax starts soloing as everything builds up but falls away to leave just the bass. Then a noisy crescendo which increases in tempo.

Perhaps the greatest release yet from Perhaps. Their sound has certainly evolved without straying too far from their original sound. Although not completely improvised and structureless, the music here is very loose and free. Very little that could be considered mainstream but at the same time not too experimental or weird. A very good release from 2015. 4 stars.