SEA OF TRANQUILITY

This is a 35007 EP containing three instrumental songs - lacking of a vocalist for the first time. Eeuwout Baart left the band together with drummer Jacco Van Rooy after they had lost their tour bus including the instruments in Rome because of a robbery. But the remaining Bertus Fridael and Mark Sponselee didn't give up though and went on with new drummer Sander Evens as a trio.

Apart from this their style didn't change noticeably - heavy psychedelic with drones and spacey elements. The first track named Von Braun is pointing to Werner Von Braun, the german missile pioneer who collaborated with the fascists during the Second World War. Initiated by a sample with some german speech related to a missile launch the band immediately offers a heavy droning outfit which is near to stoner rock. Besides some slight variations this song reflects their hypnotic style very good.

And then they immediately fade into the opulent Artificial Intelligence provided with a very spacey note, predominantly caused by guest musician René van Barneveld with his pedal steel guitar. This is excellently contrasting to the heavy backing band with lush guitar and synth layers. The title track Sea Of Tranquillity is closing this production as a jam with the alternation of relaxed space rocking and aggressive guitar riffing parts. This EP shoes the band's rebirth after experiencing a terrible setback - quite successful because including one highly recommended track.

35007's EP "Sea of Tranquility" is the first recording of the band as an instrumental unit, and in order to cement themselves as a solid Psychedelic/Space Rock band, it was a good move to not try to recruit a new vocalist. As this three track album proves, the band could easily be one of the best "Kyuss" clones that came about from the Netherlands. It is too bad that the psychedelic/space rock revival was still in flux, not really grabbing a hold of the public as much as it would later, and because of their timing, this band ended up just being sort of a cult, or fan favorite.

For those that only like their exploratory stoner/space rock instrumentals in smaller doses, this is a perfect recording. "Von Braun" opens with a solid barrage of guitar and heaviness, which quickly grabs your attention and retains it through the almost 6-minute long track. "Artificial Intelligence" is a bit spacier, but still heavy and solid with the addition of pedal steel guitar rising above the other layered guitars and synths, and the length of this track seems to fly right by even with it's 6 minute length. The title track "Sea of Tranquility" is the definite stand out to this great EP at almost 9 minutes. The track utilizes its time to slowly build, taking the listener in a more atmospheric sound with soft floating synths and guitars and snippets of field recordings in the background. There are bursts of energy and emotion once the track builds and these sections come and go providing some great dynamic material which keeps everything from going stale.

This is a perfect EP for those just beginning to explore the P/SR genre as it is just enough to give you a good taste of the sound of the genre, while keeping things a bit on the heavy side for the first 2 tracks and then visiting the more atmospheric side of the genre. If you don't like what you hear, then you definitely did not have to sacrifice a lot of time since the EP is only 20 minutes, but for those that are drawn into this music, this EP is a perfect model of what to expect. It also sets a high standard for the music as it is quite well constructed. It is too bad that the band never got a chance to expand a lot, only putting out 2 albums after this EP, but at least they captured the attention enough to now be considered one of the pioneers of the more recent collection of artists that play this genre. "Kyuss" of course went on to become "Queens of the Stone Age", but it's too bad that we never got to see what 35007 would grow into.