Melbourne’s Sand Pebbles inhabit a unique place in their particular niche of spacey psych-rock.Their debut, Ghost Transmissions was released to absolutely zero fanfare, yet, on the back of little publicity, and no touring, critical acclaim built to the point where the record was at least as modestly successful as their day jobs. That success has now led to more regular gigs, a still-expanding reputation on the local scene, and now, the recording of a third album.

As part of the search for this answer, the band decided to relocate to the edge of Australian civilization – Ceduna, a tiny underground town on the edge of the Nullabor plain; a vast, treeless expanse that stretches thousands of kilometres from central to Western Australia. The French explorer Nicholas Baudin is quoted in the album’s sleeve: “The natives call this place Ceduna. It means a place to sit and rest. It is our last chance to do so before we head out into the vast unexplored lands to the west. We are about to enter the void. Our spirits are high. We are ready for adventure…” and it is this sentiment which informs Ceduna.

The spirit of the place, the sensation of an endless void and laying in gentle repose has led The Sand Pebbles to create a deliciously spacious suite of hallucinogenic rock. Ceduna has an unhurried and unaffected air which perfectly evokes the imagery of open desert meeting isolated ocean, which is surprising considering the lack of clear air the record leaves available.

Almost every second is crammed with deliriously reverberating noises, layered one upon the other, occasionally accompanied by simple chiming guitar melodies. Even quieter moments often have the gentle him of overdubbed sound hidden deep in the well of silence. When space is allowed for the sounds to breathe, as on ’Short Term Memory Loss’ and ‘Tennessee Says’, it is essentially an instrument in itself, allowing the band’s improvisations to wander with only the guidance of the simple rhythms to constrain them.

The sheer volume of sound calls to mind feelings almost inverse to listening to Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga from last year, in that Britt Daniel’s skill is in creating sparse music that immediately feels lush and full, The Sand Pebbles make sumptuous, busy songs that feel luxurious and open. That it is so successful can be attributed to the rhythm section of Christmas Hollow and Piet Collins who are wisely thrust forward in the mix. In particular, Hollow’s simple and propulsive bass lines lend songs such as ‘Future Proofed’ a structure and solidity that allows guitarists Ben Michael X and Tor Larson’s improvisation to waft in any direction they choose.

At over eight minutes, ‘Future Proofed’ should get boring, considering much of it is an extended jam session. That it doesn’t is at the heart of Ceduna’s success. The heavily reverb-soaked guitar offers little in the way of melody, leaving that primarily to the occasional flutter of overdubbed guitar and Andrew Tanner’s almost percussive vocals, and even they don’t carry the day. Instead, the feeling of strangely Australian imagery is what sears itself on the frontal lobe.

After Ghost Transmissions’ more tightly structured, but equally hallucinogenic, pop aesthetic, Ceduna is a stunningly confident album. There appears to be no desire to conform to preconceptions of how a Sand Pebbles album ought to sound, and instead there is the impression of five men deeply comfortable in each others’ presence. Tanner’s vocals especially are impressive. While certainly not a singer for the purists, the breathiness of earlier work has been eliminated, and his clear, undistorted voice offers a fitting counterpoint to the meanderings of his bandmates.

To hold the listeners’ attention during what is essentially five gentlemen jamming in the outback suggests a depth of talent lacking in so many of the Sand Pebbles’ contemporaries. In following the footsteps of a long dead French surveyor, they have managed to sonically recreate a unique landscape with an effectiveness rarely seen today. If only all bands could retreat to the desert, get apocalyptically high, and create music as thrilling as this. The Sand Pebbles will never be globe-trotting megastars, never sell bucketloads of records, but, with Ceduna adding to an already impressive repertoire, they are certainly establishing themselves as one of the best, and most respected, bands in Australia.