Quadrant is the third full-length outing for the Dutch 5-piece and is, at a high level, equal parts stoner, space rock, and straight-up hard rock. They've toured with groups like Clutch, Hawkwind, Monster Magnet, and Queens of the Stone Age, and a good point of reference would be to mix those together with a band like Ozric Tentacles. Spacey textures are combined with crunchy guitars, sometimes tightly packaged and sometimes in long, trippy excursions.

The Ozric comparison is particularly evident on opening track "Faustian Bargain," which opens with a bouncy synth line that immediately evokes "Magick Valley" from that band's recent album "The Yumyum Tree." After about two minutes and half minutes of synth, squealing guitar, and a haunting vocal line, the guitars crash in and set the actual tone for much of the rest of the album. Followup track "Cloud Of Decay" is slow and crushingly heavy, largely eschewing the obvious synths to let guitars provide the weird textures.

The centerpiece of the album is 14 minute "As Soon As They Got Airborne," which has a vague story of some space explorers getting stuck on the moon. This song in particular hits a wide range, from the opening acoustics to synth textures to straightforward hard rock sections to a danceable groove. The fact that it visits and revisits so many sections actually makes it feel like several shorter songs while keeping the listener in thrall the whole time. Except, that is, for the last minute, which carries over the story but doesn't have any musical backdrop.

There aren't any bad songs to single out on the album. Instead, I'll single out a couple of the other big ones. "Play It Straight" hits more of the straight-up hard rock sound, evoking Beautiful Creatures, although it does detour into an extended spacey bridge. "Zero," which starts with a clip about the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor, is another catchy song with a great groove and hooky chorus. And then there's "Bloom," with a country boogie and pedal steel that I defy you not to move to.