I will always love how music acts as a doorway into the minds and souls of people that I have never met. The diversity found in this art form is never-ending, and just when I thought that I heard it all, someone comes along with an album that shows me that I have not even scratched the surface. This time around it is Bruce Nowlin and his upcoming electronically, down-tempo, and ambient heavy album 3rd Dimension, which is to be officially released July 4th, 2020.
3rd Dimension is a mixed bag of ideas. It feels like an album without a roadmap as if it were meant to simply follow an organic and ever-changing path that leads to something very unexpected. It is an eclectic album that draws inspiration from many different sources, from Pink Floyd to Enya to AC/DC to George Straight, 3rd Dimension is a progressive cinematic landscape of sound, and should be paired with some very high-end over-the-ear headphones.
What Bruce Nowlin has created is something both inspirational and dark, it is a juxtaposition of sound that feels very much like controlled chaos. Every song has its own fragility, vulnerability, and strength. Some tracks daringly touch on the idea of mixing elements that should not go together in theory but then obviously do, and that is a masterful stroke of mixing genius that only a seasoned musical veteran can pull off, and the Tron-like track ‘Quantum Leap’ expresses this point strongly.
Currently promoting the lead single ‘Speak Easy’, Bruce Nowlin starts our journey into the 3rd Dimension in a very relaxed way. It is a tropical jazz styled track that leads up to an unexpected conclusion, and this could easily be said about the album as a whole. There is simply no way to specifically define this track or the ones that follow, as each one brings its very own individuality to the table. One thing about albums that get as creative and diverse as this is that it will no doubt polarize its audience. There will be those that don’t get it and those that absolutely do, those that listen to the entire album and those that only listen to a few tracks, and that is a great thing because it means that what has been created is fresh and relevant.
After an early hearing of 3rd Dimension, I can honestly say that I hope that you give this entire album a listen, that even if you come across one track that you do not like, move on to the next track because they are all different and cannot be compared to the others in any way.
Although 3rd Dimension is still less than two weeks away, you can view the latest music video for Speak Easy on YouTube right now, as well as finding earlier works by Bruce Nowlin on Spotify.