“Spellbinder!” (YepRoc Records)
By Eleni P. Austin
Less than a decade ago, The Third Mind began as something of a busman’s holiday for singer-songwriter Dave Alvin, bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker), multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck (Counting Crows, John Hiatt) and drummer Michael Jerome (Toadies, Richard Thompson). Lately, it’s starting to feel like a full-time vocation.
Their self-titled debut arrived in early 2020 to rapturous reviews. Singer-Songwriter Jesse Sykes guested on the record and was immediately jumped into the gang. Three years later, the five-pieced doubled-down with The Third Mind 2, which featured Willie Aron guesting on keys. A live effort, pithily entitled The Third Mind Live, popped up in early 2025 and before the year finished, they released The Third Mind RIGHT NOW!, a mind-blowing, mind bending slab of Blues Rock, Folk, Country and Psychedelic Jazz. Less than six months later, they have returned with Spellbinder! a companion album to RIGHT DOWN!
The set kicks into gear with its magnum opus, the title-track. A stunning instrumental originally written and recorded by Hungarian Gypsy Jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo back in the late ‘60s. Michael pounds out a Tabla-fied beat and Victor answers with nimble bass notes, Dave chimes in with some sidewinder rhythm guitar. Following suit, David’s commanding lead guitar licks rev and retreat, before he launches into a Psychedelicized Taxim, punctuated by an authorative finger-cymbal ting!
The arrangement ebbs and flows, as the action accelerates and guitars intertwine. David uncoils a spine-tingling solo before employing an Ikassilator app that adds new colors and textures, pivoting from Moog-y to modal. At the halfway mark, Willie salts the mix with some swirly Hammond B3 notes. As all the instruments coalesce, the track kicks into interstellar overdrive, locking into a Bo Dddley-esque boogaloo before momentarily powering down. Only to roar back to life as shang-a-lang guitar, sinewy bass and pointillist keys wash over a final fusillade of lead guitar, bookended by a propulsive tabla outro.
The other three songs here were featured on The Third Mind RIGHT NOW!, but are included here for myriad reasons. “Reap What You Sow,” which was written by Mike Bloomfield, first gained traction when it was covered by Chicago Bluesman Otis Rush. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t fit on the vinyl version of Right Now! and was only available on CD and as a download. A gritty groover, it’s powered by menacing guitars, stealthy bass lines, churchy keys and a walloping beat. Jesse’s sultry vocals nearly camouflage her steely demeanor, as she lays down the law: There’s just one thing, Baby-Child, before you go, there’s going to be judgement in the morning, aw, you know there’s gonna be, there’s gonna be judgement in the morning, Child, you’re gonna reap what you sow.
“Before We Say Goodbye,” written by Dave and Jesse, is slow-cooked and Soulful, a ballad suffused in heartbreak. Plaintive piano, cascading acoustic guitar, stinging electric riffs and tensile bass are wed to a steady sonar pulse. A creamy, Philly Soul string section embroiders the margins of the melody. Jesse’s vocals flicker, toggling between trepidation and erotic frisson. Guitars scorch and singe, mirroring the smoldering embers of a toxic romance. Meanwhile, the string section (arranged by Willie Aron), hugs each hairpin turn, magnifying the melodic melancholy. Somehow, The Third Mind has managed to up the ante on an already perfect song.
“Darkness, Darkness” and “The Creator Has A Master Plan” was originally recorded as an extended jam in the studio. Once again, time constraints with the vinyl necessitated a surgical break between the two. Here, the tracks are reunited and it feels so good.
The former is a former potent combo-platter of Psych-Country and Prog-Rock written by Jesse Colin Young and recorded by his band The Youngbloods. Already a watershed song, The Third Mind take it to the next level. Loose-limbed guitars gird Jesse’s pleas for sweet forgiveness: “Darkness, darkness, be my blanket, cover me with endless night, take away, take away the pain of knowing.” Following the third verse, the rest of the band leaps in, explosive guitar salvos detonate across downcast keys as Victor and Michael anchor the low end with angular bass lines and an insistent tribal tattoo. The arrangement tilts on it’s axis, locking into a cyclonic groove that splits the difference between sprawling and succinct.
Happily, rather than stopping short, “Darkness…” gracefully flows into the latter, just as man, woman and God intended. While Pharoah Sanders’ 1969 original stretched out for 32 minutes, these guys jam econo. Breezy guitars lattice feathery keys, fizzy bass, percolating percussion and a relax-fit Cha-Cha-Cha beat. Jesse’s pliant vocals shapeshift from earthy to ethereal as she offers up this mantra: “The creator has a master plan, peace and happiness for every man… the Creator has but one demand, peace and happiness throughout the land.” On the break, polychromatic guitars color outside the lines of the melody, buoyed by incandescent piano underpinnings. The final instrumental coda drifts into the ether. It’s a dreamy and hypnotic finish to a hallucinogenic ride.
Spellbinder! serves up a smorgasbord of sounds. Once again, the band conjures up a free-form alchemy of ‘60s Blues, Folk-Rock, Jazz and Country. They honor the improvisational genius of Miles and ‘Trane (just to name a couple), and filter it through a 21st century prism. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, for The Third Mind, it’s the journey, not the destination that sustains these seekers.
