The album ‘III‘ feels like a significant release for the highly-regarded Chicago-born supergroup Pullman. The band, consisting of (deep breath) Tortoise’s Ken ‘Bundy K.’ Brown and Doug McCombs (who will also be familiar to Black Duck fans), Rex’s Curtis Harvey and Come’s Chris Brokaw, debuted in 1998 with Turnstyles & Junkpiles, with drummer Tim Barnes joining the lineup for the second album, 2001’s Viewfinder.
Fast forward a brief quarter of a century and here we have the band’s third album, a quietly kaleidoscopic journey of musical ideas that beautifully coheres into thirty-five minutes of tight instrumentation and deeply satisfying songs.
In a way, this album should not even exist. In 2021, Barnes announced his early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, yet continued working with Brown on a daily basis, as well as various collaborators, with the initial idea being just one track for a compilation. As the sessions and ideas developed, an album gradually appeared from music recorded between 2016 and 2023 and was completed between 2021 and 2023.
Over the years, Pullman’s sound has evolved quite dramatically, beginning with the all-acoustic Turnstyles & Junkpiles and progressing into the acoustic and electric guitar split Viewfinder. III feels like a far more abstract record, yet it actually hangs together better than both previous albums and showcases diversity and a glut of ideas.
Bray kicks things off with a fuzz-heavy two-minute instrumental blast that sounds like a time capsule from the nineties. A dense wall of sound throws up ghosts of melodies and ace, authoritative bass notes, before the whole thing stops suddenly and we are in the light and shimmering Weightless. Here, high, clean guitar lines tangle and shift around a cool percussion line and occasional soft bass notes. Like the rest of the music here, the playing feels communal and familial, with each musician allowed space to contribute or hang back.
Elsewhere, the lovely Killing Time, a miniature under a minute, combines a field recording of various chats with an easy guitar and drum line, and feels poignant and quietly uplifting. This sense of optimism permeates the album, albeit with undeniable seriousness in places, even on starker songs, like the lengthy October. This one extends the almost silent electronic drone that plays out the last three minutes of Thirteen, itself an emotional piece of music, and allows the quietude to slowly bleed into a patiently picked electric guitar part. Barely audible itches of sound hover around the periphery, contributing to an organic sonic palette that is sliced through with reverb-heavy guitar in places.
It is emotive music that feels weighty yet as light as air and meticulous in its composition and delivery. A meditation of sorts, as well as an intricate and graceful display of musical camaraderie, this piece feels significant and best illustrates the journey this highly creative group of musicians have been on.
III is an album that will get under your skin and continue developing once it has done so. The subtle sound-scaping has been done with an expert touch that leaves it open for multiple listens, each delivering new details and points of interest. It is elegant, heartfelt and accomplished.
III (January 9th, 2026) Western Vinyl
Pre-Order III: https://lnk.to/pullman