Review: My Education, Theta Naught — Sound Mass III: Ampersand
Music
My Education, Theta Naught
Sound Mass III: Ampersand
Rural Isolation Project
Street: 06.18.24
Sound Mass = The Mars Volta / Radiohead + Snarky Puppy
In a collaboration between Austin’s My Education and Salt Lake City’s Theta Naught, the newest addition in the Sound Mass collection has been released. A project that took 10 years since its predecessor, Sound Mass 2: Spiritual Docking, Sound Mass III is a beautiful rock overture — the album is way bigger in sound then what I was anticipating. At just under an hour and eight tracks long, Sound Mass III takes you into a world you will never want to leave. It seems others have caught wind of this as well, with the group currently being listed as a performer at South by Southwest this March.
A psychedelic rock overture, Sound Mass III is absolutely fantastic and the definition of “big picture.” Sound Mass comes off to me almost like Snarky Puppy but from a decrepit, post-rock world. Brian Purington sets himself apart as a true renaissance man on this project when it comes to his guitar playing. Purington is a member of New Zealand alternative band Swallow The Rat as well. Opening up Sound Mass III is the booming rock track “Let’s Get Doom,” reminiscent to me of bands such as The Mars Volta. Sweeping guitars and strings across the project make this avant-rock and classical composition blend. It’s dark, sophisticated, scary and beautiful. The groaning and talkative guitars remind me of Geordie Greep’s solo album as well, with its prog-rock song structure. The pocketed drum grooves gave me pure deja vu of the Linkin Park mixtape Underground 13 with its opening demo track “Basquiat” (mostly because SoundMass percussion goes absolutely insane in the pocket).
Tracks such as “Water Demon” show the group flexing their composition skills, with great string arrangements on the track (and throughout the whole project.) With the tracks being instrumentals, you would think they would have a habit of bleeding together, but that actually lends itself even more to the idea that it’s worth listening to the whole thing as opposed to just a track here and there. “The Clam” sounds like it’s pulled straight out of a noir film, with its chanting horns and great bass lines from Ryan Stanfield — and at over 12 minutes long, it is easily a contender for one of the most interesting tracks on the album.
The project is a great blend of different music worlds: prog and advanced rock overtures with string and horn compositions from a renaissance faire. These ideas get explored and pushed to the extreme on tracks such as “One Plus One is Three” and “Deep Austin.” Some of the high moments on the project include the previously mentioned “Let’s Get Doom” and “The Clam” — low moments just don’t exist. It may not be for everyone, but Sound Mass manages to weave avant-rock and jazz and classical compositions that are great to listen to in the background, and even better when listening with intent. It’s still impactful without words, still beautiful without lyrics.
It might be a little blasphemous to bring out the Radiohead comparisons this early, but the instrumentals on this project are seriously next level: haunting violins, big drums and beautiful guitars galore. I realized only now how much this project sounds like A Moon Shaped Pool on paper. Originally, I was worried the lack of vocals would lead to perhaps a dull and repetitive experience, but Sound Mass III couldn’t be more different. The album has some of the most consistent and interesting songwriting I’ve heard in a long time, and just absolutely stunning instrumentals in general. I don’t know if the group is planning on a Sound Mass 4; however, if it’s anything remotely similar to the previous releases, I will sure as hell be listening. If I could write “listen to this album” a thousand times in red pen, I probably would. I just don’t have a pen. And this is a digitally published article. —Jake Fabbri
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