For those of you who dig good instrumental rock music, but find it harder and harder to find in this day and age, look no further than PLANKTON! "3" has lots of interesting grooves and vibes goin' on. I knew from the opening track, "The Telltale Heart," with it's "Theme from Shaft" style bongos and wah wah pedal abuse, that we had something special here. Who cares if the upbeat music doesn't match the Edgar Allan Poe tale it's named for, this track was lots of fun!

As mentioned earlier, there are lots of cool grooves on here. From the funkiness of the aforementioned leadoff song, to the bluesy "Cosmic Bridge," to the almost folky leanings of "Have You Ever..?" to the various HENDRIX-isms throughout, PLANKTON keeps the listener on their toes. The song "Evolution At Work" alone has an albums worth of interesting parts to it. Drummer Sebastian Sippola and bassist Tomas Thorberg (these guys are from Sweeden, can't ya tell?) are clearly content to provide a solid and perfect backbone for guitarists Christian Neppenstrom and Emil Fredholm to hog the spotlight. The playing is tasteful, all around. A lot of bands of their ilk get too caught up in self indulgent wankery at the expense of the song. It's clear that giving music fans an enjoyable listening experience is more important to these guys than showing off, and that is much appreciated.

So congrats, PLANKTON! You have a new fan. Here's to 4 being even better than 3!

- Broadbent

OFFICIAL SITE: www.plankton.nu

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Cosmic Bridge

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.