Island Three - Dark and Empty Spaces
Before you get mistaken, this is not a mini-album of six tracks; it is a mini-album of four songs and two NASA provided satellite samples (‘The Tower is Clear’ and ‘Dark Empty Spaces’). These two wouldn’t have been so bad if they somehow had a connection, a reason for being, but they seem to have simply been inserted because of NASA’s connection with “dark empty spaces”.
Disregarding these two “tracks” completely, the remaining four are fairly easy to listen to. The one element that each song has in common is the musical introduction of over a minute long! It is a bit daring to have such prolonged musical arrangements before the song, vocals and melodies, truly begin. In the cases here, it gets a little tedious waiting to hear what a track has in store. Once these drawn out musical segments are overcome, the tracks fair up quite nicely. ‘Dial 51’ builds upon the guitars, even if they are at times a little be placid, however they do get much stronger. Likewise ‘Moon Mirror Window’ has a string guitar platform with a guitar riff that is addictive and can be easily hummed along with. The vocals and keys build upon this intense melody. Lastly there is ‘Secrets’, a darker toned tune to an extent that goes a little overboard with the guitar solos
There is a lot of ambition and driving force behind Island Three and maybe with some work they could go on to make an exceptional second release.