Caledonian Mystic (Fiend 3)

The final of Fiend's initial three releases, which includes some relatively newer tracks recorded after Mogwai, Caledonian Mystic acts as a perfect coda to the strong string of albums while providing new, inspired joys on its own. Semi-regular collaborator Gavin Laird, a friend from the Telstar Ponies days, helps out at points throughout this album, with the opening cut "Evermore," a combination of low-key chime and groove and swirling keyboard craziness, being a full collaboration. Mostly it's O'Hare following his own particular music, once again offering up shorter, more fragmented moments and lengthier mind-melting jams in fairly equal measure. As before, sources of inspiration are clear enough without being overwhelming, with O'Hare coming up with his own intriguing variations of spooky, mysterious psych/art rock mixed with later drone and space antecedents. "Red Pigment Tattoo," with its slow rhythms, soft chanting, and extra whispered lyrics over a steady feedback part, has sonic links to everything from Labradford to early-'70s Can without simply repeating the past. Things are a bit rougher at points than they were on Cosmic — if there's nothing as completely abrasive as Gothic's "Compressor," a song like "Until These Parallels Are Understood," O'Hare's spoken brogue hovering over a heavy, repetitive jam, still has its forceful points. The lengthy zone-out this time around is "Forgotten Sea," which clocks in at a little over a quarter of an hour. More spacious and cryptic than Fiend's other longer numbers, its hushed sense of looming, empty space slots in alongside a song like "The Birthplace of Stars," but with a blasted, emptier feeling that could easily be by acts like Lull or Final. O'Hare as before tempers this with a soft central melody, minimal in sound and impact, around which the rest of the piece establishes the mood.