Herb Lore

The last offering from Herb Lore was a massive exploration of psych-folk and prog-adjacent passages that unfolded slowly over longform landscapes. For the follow-up, the Brooklyn songwriter trims the timestamp and focuses his vision on a grey-streaked strain of psychedelic folk that’s both meditative and menacing. Begun in New York, but brought to life in journeys through Oregon, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, the album has a starkness to it that’s reflected in its title Mysticism. Underpinned by aqueous field recordings, the record is wrapped in the lore of the sage’s journey. Desolate landscapes, dark clouds, and damp surroundings feel a part of the record, another player in the party. Hopelessness hangs in overcast hues, but ultimately the journey through finds the clouds parting.

The record is rooted in journeys both spiritual and physical, a stripping down, a relinquishing of pride in order to find solace and purpose. The tools to awaken this revelation are hypnotic guitar phrases, circular patterns that chant and chime under the grit teeth of electric lines full of fever and friction. There are moments in Mysticism when the jagged rocks cut the skin and others where the focus frees the mind to embrace an inner lightness. The climb cleanses, the waters below, swirl but the over the course of the seven-track odyssey the listener is lifted up through the laceration. The album tosses Herb Lore into the running for psych-folk names to watch. Guitar soli has been rampant in folk the past few years and the more scorched elements have been scant, but along with Prana Crafter and Smote, this might be one of the most interesting new entries into the genre in some time.

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