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Saturday 28 May 2016

LANDING – THIRD SIGHT (El Paraiso Records LP, CD).

Strange things are happening in Connecticut………..landing mid-June on El Paraiso Records’ Impetus imprint is the new record from….err….Landing. Mixing an organic blend of rock instrumentation and analog electronics, Landing have specialized in a mild and rural kind of psychedelia over the course of nearly two decades and despite releasing one brilliant album after another the band remains criminally underappreciated. Perhaps because the trips Landing are taking are too distanced from the hipster's version of Krautrocky drone music.  Recent releases have seen them closer to post-punk and shoegaze territory than ever, but Third Sight, recorded specifically for the Impetus series, builds on the hallucinatory soundscapes of the band's earliest days. Third Sight consists of four long tracks of warm washes of blissed out ambience/psychedelia…….think Eno and Bardo Pond playing mind chess while tripping and you would not be far off the mark…….as Landing blend old school, fluttering Electronica which brings to mind Eno’s best collaborations in the 1970s with the fuzzy, more experimental Drone Rock from American East Coast scene.

Opening with the epic ‘Delusion Sound’, Landing channel the hazy narcotic somnolence of Spacemen 3 which then dissolves into an almost pastoral sound sketch with languid guitars and static filled glitch Electronica blurring the lines between Post Rock and Psychedelia as the track unhurriedly winds down. Both beautifully economic but sonically expansive at the same time, Landing explore the aural landscape of Krautrock, Drone Rock, Psych Folk and Psychedelica to stunning effect……..taking inspiration from such diverse bands as  Unwound, Tar, Cocteau Twins, Flying Saucer Attack, Harmonia, Spacemen 3, Cluster and Lush, there's a unique sense of motoric drift to these four pieces, Landing’s psychedelia possesses a rare timelessness, listening through this record is likely to stimulate mental images of rural winds blowing across vast American fields of grass, bonfires, blue rivers and power lines sailing through rolling hills. ‘Third Site’ has the feel of early 70s Krautrock pioneers Harmonia with primitive electronics gently pulsing underneath a soundscape of luscious sweeping guitars and synths while coming in at under the 5 minute mark is ‘Facing South’ is a beautiful guitar piece reminiscent of Michael Brook’s ‘infinite guitar’ compositions which serves as an interlude before Third Sights massive closing track kicks in. On ‘Morning Sun’ everything comes together perfectly, creating a magnificent composite of dense Drone Rock, Electronica, left-field experimental Shoegaze and abstract Krautrock which sees Landing right at the top of their game………..as someone wiser than us said “the whipper snappers these days, trafficking in similar sounds, have NOTHING on their sonic elders. Dreamy, droney, poppy, psychedelic, electronic perfection!”. Third Sight is a 40 minute soak in a warm bath of sonic bliss………an absolutely wonderful record.

Released on 17/6/16 Third Sight is available to pre-order now from the El Paraiso Records web shop either on green vinyl or silver CD. Landing’s mind blowing new record will also available from your favourite vinyl emporium if you ask nicely and in the USA via Forced Exposure ……….check it out people.


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