Review: The Third Sound ‘Most Perfect Solitude’
Reviewing an album, although you love it and have a torrent of great words to describe it, it doesn’t always come easy. You need to be sure that every word you write down is giving the best description, not only to the readers but also for the band involved.
In the case of Icelandic born Hákon Aðalsteinsson, singer, guitarist, songwriter and founding member of Berlin, Germany based psych cosmic experimental post-punk rock quartet The Third Sound it’s all matter of entering inside his world of unknown pleasure made of dark ghosts and vibrant feeling of uncertain future. But as he describes at times in his lyrics, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Hákon is one of the most angelic and delicate figures in the underground world of music and mind perception. He’s a very much a known cult figure, having already been part of the first line-up of the Reykjavík group, Singapore Sling (a group that musically drew inspiration from the electro dark cinematic sound of the late Suicide), his new side project Golden Hours (a band made up of members of The Gang Of Four and The Fuzztones) and even more so to be an integral part of one of the most interesting bands of the international psych rock scene, Anton Newcombe’s The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Keeping us close to the production of Hákon‘s The Third Sound, from 2010 up to now they released a good bunch of singles and six well crafted full length studio albums, each of which exudes a post-punk mixed sheen from an overwhelming sound. Through their intriguing music and vocals, they are capable of uncontrollably torturing you and making you enter their world of fluctuating dark sounds. In each of their albums, there is always something new, so emphatically bursting that it leaves you thinking and feeling part of their happy/tragic world, assembled by the captivating and shocking lyrics delicately sung by Hákon.
Their records are not meant to be listened just once and put aside, because once you are caught inside their spiders web, they end up being part of your daily life as they tell a part of you, becoming a companion of your Most Perfect Solitude.
Most Perfect Solitude is an explosion of heartfelt pictures described in colourful details by a man whose goal in life goes beyond any expectations…
The sound of their new album is imbued with a pungent dark romanticism delivered by the mind of a man in search of solace for his wandering soul. You can catch rays of light in their music as part of the triumphant and more heart-lighted and extrovert moments of Hákon‘s delightful songwriting. Their musical spontaneity enters tunnels of experimentalism that oscillate between songs made of light and dark bittersweet moments of lucidity and solitude.
Their musical influences are clear to hear and perceive. You can hear a certain reminiscence of The Jesus and Mary Chain on See You On The Other Side and On Returning, Spiritualized on Catch Fire or the adventurous psych indie rock bands of the 90s. But they also touch the heart of country folk, or even Nick Cave on Shooting Star and Don’t Look Back.
After all, it’s only natural to walk on the same green grass that The Third Sound‘s musicians grew up on, and juggling with music it becomes an amusing affair. Most Perfect Solitude is an explosion of heartfelt pictures described in colourful details by a man whose goal in life goes beyond any expectations.
Label: Fuzz Club Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Caccamo
