The Third Eye - Searching (Reissue) (1969/2009)

The third and final album by South African heavy psych-prog quintet the Third Eye was recorded in only two days -- as were each of its predecessors -- and yet it demonstrates a stylistic and musical evolution. New instruments like tabla and vibes appear, and vocalist Maurice Saul seems to have gotten some of his Sun-City-lounge-soul mannerisms under control in favor of a more restrained, singer/songwriter demeanor. The songs have mysterious titles like "Selby's Hospitality" (that one's a two-minute vibes-and-organ instrumental) and "Retain Your Half-Ticket," and much of the heavy riffing and extended guitar-jamming that were key to the appeal of the two previous discs have been excised. It's not until the second half of the fourth track, "Stagemakers," that guitarist Ronnie Selby and his sister, organist Dawn, really get to cut loose. Of course, that's followed by "Awakening," which originally took up much of Side Two on vinyl -- it's a 14-minute power-blues-psych epic on which Saul seems to be attempting almost preacherly cadences as he rants more than sings the lyrics, with the drummer rattling out a kind of martial/metal beat behind him and Ronnie Selby tears at the guitar's strings. Unfortunately, the song's second half devolves into organ-drenched balladry that saps all the crazed energy built up early on. The disc's closing track, "I Can't Believe It," is a three-minute nugget of primitive one-chord rock & roll that could have been recorded in 1955, not 1969. The Third Eye weren't geniuses ignored because of their remote geographical location; they were just OK, but they had their moments, and Searching contains a few of them.