I owe a great deal of my time in Toronto to Ozzy's Palace, the West end house that shares its name with the 13-minute opening track opening of Westelaken's I am Steaming Mushrooms. If you didn't live there, perhaps you attended a show in its bomb shelter-like basement bar, or passed time beneath the backyard grape vines vocalist Jordan Seccareccia sings of, feeling as unhurried as the instrumentation behind him. The post-country quartet who once opined that The Golden Days are Hard understand moments such as these eventually fade: rent gets raised; landlords only grow crankier; five-dollar pint specials around the neighbourhood dry up. As Seccareccia puts it, "You've used up your time here, you're getting eaten."
Still, community carries on, and I am Steaming Mushrooms is a flavourful testament to this through the players involved, the places in which they create and the worlds of sound and feeling Westelaken's songs inhabit. Recurring collaborators like Little Kid's Kenny Boothby and Slurry's Rachel Bellone return to the fold, along with enriching session stars Rachael Cardiello (viola) and Charlene Lee (clarinet). Recording took place in part at the city's beloved Tranzac club, and at something of a spiritual successor to Ozzy's dubbed Jerzy.
As dynamic as ever, the four-piece of Seccareccia, Alex Baigent, Rob McLay and Lucas Temor now establish themselves as experts of pace, with some of Mushrooms' finest moments fruiting through slowing down, stretching out and embracing openness. It begins with "Ozzy's Palace," as Westelaken round its main chord progression into form with a Tonight's the Night-level looseness, teasing at heavier directions the song could waltz into before backing into a beautiful sun-soaked coda. "Annex Clinic & Pharmacy" makes fantastic use of the group's aforementioned dynamism in establishing strong, recurring musical themes, while the gentle thrum which grounds the 10-minute "Fossilhead," undergirding Temor's piano rising in tandem with Seccareccia's double-tracked vocals, brings to mind the experimental acuity of a band like Talk Talk.
Westelaken remain compelling at shorter length, too. "Fixed Up By Orange Light" is the most rousing Mushrooms gets, highlighted by a bridge in which McLay's drums and a quickly-picked guitar herald a cacophonous rev-up back to full-band action, while "Ribcage" pares things back to banjo and voice, allowing greater examination of Seccareccia's emotional lyricism: "I can't tell the shape of my insides from the design carved out by you." Establishing such a collective takes time, and Mushrooms will be all the more rewarding if approached similarly. As Seccareccia sings on the opening track, "Too slow is the slowing down."
(Independent)Still, community carries on, and I am Steaming Mushrooms is a flavourful testament to this through the players involved, the places in which they create and the worlds of sound and feeling Westelaken's songs inhabit. Recurring collaborators like Little Kid's Kenny Boothby and Slurry's Rachel Bellone return to the fold, along with enriching session stars Rachael Cardiello (viola) and Charlene Lee (clarinet). Recording took place in part at the city's beloved Tranzac club, and at something of a spiritual successor to Ozzy's dubbed Jerzy.
As dynamic as ever, the four-piece of Seccareccia, Alex Baigent, Rob McLay and Lucas Temor now establish themselves as experts of pace, with some of Mushrooms' finest moments fruiting through slowing down, stretching out and embracing openness. It begins with "Ozzy's Palace," as Westelaken round its main chord progression into form with a Tonight's the Night-level looseness, teasing at heavier directions the song could waltz into before backing into a beautiful sun-soaked coda. "Annex Clinic & Pharmacy" makes fantastic use of the group's aforementioned dynamism in establishing strong, recurring musical themes, while the gentle thrum which grounds the 10-minute "Fossilhead," undergirding Temor's piano rising in tandem with Seccareccia's double-tracked vocals, brings to mind the experimental acuity of a band like Talk Talk.
Westelaken remain compelling at shorter length, too. "Fixed Up By Orange Light" is the most rousing Mushrooms gets, highlighted by a bridge in which McLay's drums and a quickly-picked guitar herald a cacophonous rev-up back to full-band action, while "Ribcage" pares things back to banjo and voice, allowing greater examination of Seccareccia's emotional lyricism: "I can't tell the shape of my insides from the design carved out by you." Establishing such a collective takes time, and Mushrooms will be all the more rewarding if approached similarly. As Seccareccia sings on the opening track, "Too slow is the slowing down."