PEACOCK BLACK

So this is another nice surprise which I came across recently ... due to the tribal rhythms and psychedelic influences I already had the band TRIBE AFTER TRIBE in mind in recent times - the song 'Ice Below' attracted my attention especially - and now the band's mastermind and guitarist Robbi Robb comes up with a new space rock project, plus two interesting albums at once on top of it. The 3RD EAR EXPERIENCE line-up is featuring various incarnations, more than ten members are involved in total. Additionally wellknown to me are bass player Dug Pinnick of KING'S X fame and Amritakripa, deeply involved in Indian music, also caring for the synthesizer goodies.

Somewhere deep in the Californian Mojave Desert they came together for a few days (respectively nights) to jam, a region being popular for the Joshua Trees ... and stargazing especially. Well, circumstances which are inspiring per se when it comes to a space rock crew, of course! For the sister album 'Boi' - which was released on the Megaforce Records label by the way - they have cut some jams up into eight regular songs. This self-released album though is comprised of four really extended excursions, where they let it flow with intent, with enough room for experiments.

The band starts the engines in a relatively common way - The Surface Of Last Scattering comes with groove and a jazzy touch, nice restrained organ (Alan Swanson) and saxophone (Aaron Merc) input inclusively. Drummer Eric Mouness serves a tremendous drive and overall this comes close to the Oresund Space Collective in parts, I would say. The following title track is trance pure on the other hand - the band's experimental side chops out. Amritakripa (Kripa in short) provides female voices which appear like coming from a foreign world, this reminds me of the German Chickencage Experience, I mean the vocal sisters MichaeLa Flame and Howling Mad Fishli especially.

Including some dramatic rebellion in between they are basically cultivating a wonderful meandering and partially hallucinogenic style here, with Robbi in top form. For one or two times it seems like the crew is drawing a cut, but another new attempt brings them forward once again - very inspired moments ... Pocket Full Of Stars works in a similar way, this time some digeridoo attendence has to be considered, also nice electric piano. However, the jam temporarily falls back into a lovely, fluffy direction, before they enter the absolutely intriguing finale, wow!

The ultimate long track High Lands initiates with an extended electronical session. This sounds like inspired by the Berlin School. You may not expect any change furthermore ... but right in the middle the band comes in with the already noted planitude of power - that means the song gradually increases to a massive statement in the end. 'Black Peacock' was recorded and mixed by second guitarist Eric Ryan - overall a fantastic spontaneous musical interaction of like-minded musicians, which does not leave anything to be desired. Kudos, Robbi, Dug and all the others ... for me, even after a bunch of listening sessions, this still is a magical attraction - 4.5 stars so far.