Third Ear Candy

John Terlesky (aka Brother JT) continues his exploration of musical inner space on 2007's Third Ear Candy, which finds him in relatively playful form, embracing electronics and sampling and sounding surprisingly funky for an acid-head edging into middle age. While you have to possess a very specific mindset to dance to most of the stuff on Third Ear Candy, JT does have a genuine feel for a groove, and there's a gleeful sway to "I Am the Blob" and "Soul Kandy" that suggests somebody getting on what could pass for a good foot, and though "quirky" doesn't begin to describe this music, the psychedelic accents that bob in and out of the mix (gurgling synths, droning keyboards, distorted vocals, panning that sweeps back and forth) mesh with the beats like some lysergic variation on hip-hop or contemporary R&B. JT also finds room for the languid mood of "Glowinya," the organic blues-accented "Jat Blues," and the ominous tones of "Medication" (which samples Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"), but for the most part Third Ear Candy leans toward a lighter mood, with JT blissfully letting his freak flag fly as he comes "to rob you of your problems." Terlesky stakes out a territory on this album that could easy sound utterly ridiculous, but his musical instincts are keen enough that the tunes carry the day even at their trippiest, and he delivers this sunshine-speak with enough conviction to overpower any doubters — on Third Ear Candy, Brother JT sounds like the last of the psychedelic true believers, and he's got a fine aural prescription for you to try.