SEA OF TRANQUILITY

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.