Album Review: Tranquonauts, III
Posted in Reviews on July 6th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Shout it from the hilltops: Tranquonauts are a real band. Are they a supergroup? I somehow doubt they’d use that word, which implies egotism and a kind of coked-up indulgence, but there’s no arguing with the lineup or the pedigree of the band’s members, from Melbourne, Australia’s Seedy Jeezus — guitarist/vocalist/sampler Lex Waterreus, bassist Paul Crick and drummer Mark Sibson; gentlemen all — at the core of the project, to Isaiah Mitchell of Cali epic-psych (mostly-)instrumentalists Earthless and Port Orchard, Washington’s Tony Reed, of Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Constance Tomb, and others.
The latter party came aboard for 2 (review here), which was released in 2024, and now aligned to Kozmik Artifactz for release in Europe with Blown Music once again handling Australia and Echodelick Records holding down North American distribution, Tranquonauts reveal what they’ve apparently been building toward in the decade since their self-titled debut (review here) with the four-song collection, III. And the message of band-dom could hardly be clearer or more efficiently delivered on a record that’s still so spaced in terms of atmosphere, or that derives such clear pleasure in blending craft and expanse.
A sample at the beginning of opener “All Rise” (8:31) sets up a thread that runs through most of the release, and if you’d immediately go to the end of closer “S() Sigurnova” (9:38) to see if there’s one there to bookend, yes, there is. Assembled and I think in some cases — the line about “Tranquonauts are powering down” comes to mind — spoken by Waterreus, the samples are given a classic sci-fi feel, a grainy sound and discussion of rockets and post-WWII pulp-film vibes. They bring a sense of aesthetic to the proceedings and provide a backdrop uniting the material, but neither are they overused. After about a minute, “All Rise” launches into its central riff, and that it even has one feels declarative of their purpose.
I wouldn’t call it crunchy or crushing, but it’s more tense in its structure and insistent in a way that the fluidity of the band’s prior jams on prior records weren’t trying to be. Reed takes the lead vocal in the verse that ensues, but the structure begins to loosen as they push into the solo, and around 3:05, they land in a Mellotron-topped slowdown that becomes the point from which the jam takes off. Solos are shredded, I think Waterreus takes vocals for something of a verse, but the tempo has mellowed and the effect is more hypnotic and the listener is drawn in. There’s little chance of coming back from where they go, and they don’t, but a sample ties the end of “All Rise” to the beginning, and sets up the cover of UFO‘s “Space Child” (8:39) just the same.
Mitchell takes over on vocals, with acoustic and electric guitars backing and a subdued flow that meshes well with the jam the band just left behind, as well as the one on which they’re about to embark. Crick‘s bassline and Sibson‘s drums are probably never going to get the marquee position in the band with the three guitarist/vocalists on board, but they are nonetheless the glue keeping the songs together and righteous on their own. “Space Child” puts its jam in the middle, sounding part-improv, which one wouldn’t necessarily expect on a cover, but even before the halfway mark, the exploratory feel is paramount. The difference is that where “All Rise” didn’t come back around, “Space Child” does, gradually returning to ‘ground’ (relatively speaking) with intertwining shred and a stop before the last verse rounds out.
That’s the end of side A, and though “Space Child” didn’t actually have any samples in it, the one at the end of “All Rise” and another at the start of “Broken Star” (7:34) gives a sense of continuity just the same. The song comes in with rhythm and lead guitar before Waterreus‘ classic-soul verse unfolds, carrying to right about at 3:45, where finger-snap marks the beginning of the next outbound cosmic foray; a quiet build that wants nothing for payoff but is going to take its time getting there, which is ultimately to the strength of the song as a whole. It might be a plotted progression, but the solo(s) over top feel vibrant and spontaneous just the same, and as it fades out, “Broken Star” transitions directly, mid-sampled-rumble, to the aforementioned finale/longest track, “”S() Sigurnova.”
A reference in the title to Sigur Ros coincides with the stated inspiration for the song, and the early, pre-verse float the band conjure is indeed a departure from, say, a UFO cover. Mellotron, still plenty of guitar around and softer vocals from Waterreus let “S() Sigurnova” flow, covering new ground without feeling out of place, with samples laced through between vocal lines before they gradually embark on their journey, Sibson crashing in at 3:43 accompanied by a twisting lead line on guitar (there’s also a solo happening) as the bed for the last dive into the liquefied far-out. As with “All Rise,” they make it clear that once they go, they’ll remain gone, and that’s how it happens, but they’re dynamic in that, bringing “S() Sigurnova” to a multi-guitar crescendo at around 8:45 before it starts to come apart and that last sample steps in to give a sense of completion to the LP.
It’s not that either of the two previous Tranquonauts albums were lacking cohesion, but if you listened to the first and then the second, a sense of refinement was working its way into their sound, and that continues on III. I still don’t know to what it will lead, if they’ll ever be the kind of band who write ‘straightforward’ material, but the balance they strike between off-the-cuff sonic adventuring and structure is evolving, has evolved to be what it is here. Tranquonauts will likely always be a side-project for those involved, owing to geographic spread almost as much as everyone else’s other commitments, but more than they had yet, III demonstrates a creative progression that is their own, separate and distinct from the members’ other groups. In other words, they sound like a real band more than they have to this point, and from here, they feel like they could go anywhere.
Tranquonauts, “All Rise” live at Freak Valley Festival 2026
Echodelick Records on Bandcamp
