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Infinite Third is the solo project of Billy Mays III. Yes, the son of the infomercial spokesman, that wired guy with the beard yelling at you about Oxy Clean -- his son makes post-rock. I guess that everyone has a parent, and everyone also must make their own way in the world, struggling to create something of value. My father designed the data center that MSNBC runs on, and i write about music on this internet site. His father screamed at you about how amazing certain products are, and he makes post-rock. Okay.
And Billy Mays III makes pretty good post-rock. I get sent a lot of post-rock albums to review, and this one stands out from the crowd. Mr. Mays III is not simply doing it "by the numbers". He has also been at this since 2009. Well, that is when he released his first album, and presumably he has been at it a little longer than that. But 8 years is a long time, and he has a dozen releases listed on his BandCamp page, so the man is busy. And the fact that he has worked hard to refine his craft shows through here.
This album starts off with Now (then) which is based on a backwards sample -- a voice bit reversed, which sounds eerie. A deep bass drone comes in, slowly rising up to occasionally swamp the reversed voice. A clicking beat comes in and it gets dense for a few seconds, before flattening out again, the backwards voice gone, in Sentence(s). He plays a faint guitar line here, and there is no nice drumming. Here, he sounds more like Explosions in the Sky. There is a faint vocal loop at times, a female voice in ... Russian? It sounds almost like Kedr Livanskiy -- what an odd coincidence. This is a pretty good tune overall.
Vision(s) has a clicking beat and a really good guitar riff, while Open(ing) has a really lovely guitar line, just a simple riff that is repeated over meandering keyboardy ambience. It's nice.
Dream(s) features a guitar part that reminds me of Ova Looven, just some bent notes in a smooth solo. The music backing him is lighter, making this song an exercise in sparse, restrained post-rock. This is nicely done.
In(to) is a haze of washes of synth and barely there guitar noodling. It fades into Channel(s). This is about 12 minutes long, so be patient. Here, Mays III reminds me of Lights Out Asia or Everything Is Made In China. This is post-rock guitar noodling with some intense percussion. My question is: since Mays III is the only person attributed on this record, how does he recreate the percussion in his "ambient installations", which is what he calls his live shows? At any rate, this is another nice song that ebbs, flows, then does it again. At the end of this epic track, rain sounds come in and slowly overwhelm everything, until you are left with a guitar fading out and rain coming down... Very nice.
And finally, Nothing Happened (again) brings this album back around with a backwards sample of something chugging as the guitar meanders. A lovely end.
So, Mr. Mays III makes some quality post-rock. He has been at it a while, so he has honed his craft. This music will not, however, make your whites brighter. Just keep that in mind!
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