O.W.L. - Of Wondrous Legends

It's been a little over a month since I last posted. I know, I'm such a slacker. Actually, I've been busy trying to convince myself to so schoolwork, and subsequently doing said schoolwork. It's a very time-consuming process. I have an hour or so to kill, so here we are.

Today's album: O.W.L. - Of Wondrous Legends

Genre: Psychadelic, Folk
Released: March 2008, recorded 1971
Running time: 12 tracks, 50:21
In a nutshell: Knights, kings, and carnivals

Apparently this album was originally recorded by Stephen Titra back in 1971, but it was never released to the public. Some hipster record-freak dug up some test pressings and decided to share it with the world last spring.

Did the world really need to listen to this record? Well, maybe we didn't need to, but I think it was an hour well spent. The album is an ornate mix of old, Western European folk and psychadelic rock. This was by no means a new combination; a lot of British rock bands have done this, such as Small Faces, and even Led Zeppelin to a lesser extent. O.W.L. shoots for the same general aesthetic, but with less emphasis on blues, rock, and eclectic psychadelia.

Instrumentally, the band sounds incredible, creating an intricate flow of acoustic folk instruments, flute and wind, xylophone, melodic bass and percussion. The melodies are often sound very medieval-classical, but there are also elements of blues, jazz, and even bossa nova here. My personal favorite is the third track, Be Alive, which adorns a bouncy acoustic guitar with jazzy electric piano, and a catchy bass melody. The musicians are usually virtuosic without being overwhelmingly "progressive".

Lyrically, Titra often tries to transport the listener to a somewhat fantastical version of medieval Europe through musical narrative. A Tale of a Crimson Knight is exactly that; a tale of a knight's encounter with an enchanting maiden. The longest track on the record, Midnight Carnival, matches lyrical description of the setting with alternating currents of groovy psych-rock and woozy atmospherics. The effect is often a bit cheezey, but I think I'd fall for it if I was high enough. This is definitely a stoner/geek album; it takes either drugs or an overactive imagination to really become absorbed in the environment that Titra creates.

This is not to say that this is a concept album, telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Titra uses his medieval medium for introspection (in Be Alive), and even political righteousness (Everyman and the Philosopher King). So I think that, on the rare occasion where I feel like smoking a bowl and listening to something this nerdy, I'd rather go all out and listen to something like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.