À La Ô Terre LP
Castle Face, 2020

The Castle Face catalog has been expanding into wilder psychedelic and prog territory lately, as heard on its flagship band the Osees’ last handful of records, as well as other Dwyer-related groups like Bent Arcana and the Endless Garbage album, not to mention the heaping collection of unreleased recordings from 1972–1976 by the Swiss band Kedama. The Bent Arcana record especially had plenty of chewy psyche bits to savor, at times feeling like a spiritual descendant of the fusion jazzed brain fry that is Bitches Brew, so it’s no surprise that it’s taken a minute to fully dive into this Montreal group’s outstanding debut. If you’re at all susceptible to warmly buzzing psychedelia or expansive prog escapades, or even latter day Osees records, you’ll surely find plenty here that will blot your paper and engage with repeat spins on the turntable. While many have already connected the dots from Can, Amon Düül and even King Crimson, a strain of The Doors and even early Black Sabbath can also be found in the haunting minor key drifts that weave in and out of the ten tracks on À La Ô Terre, giving it a uniquely badass place among the pantheon of greats mentioned above. Some tracks, like the quieter passages from “Attraction” and “À la Porte de Demain” almost fill the spacey void that’s been silent since Seattle’s Jessamine stopped making records back in 1999. Fellow searcher, if you’re on a quest for hypnotic nod out music of the finest caliber, look no further than the play button conveniently located below…