Nate Mercereau's Fantastic Thoughts w/ Carlos Niño & Austin WIlliamson

about

Complementing an already dizzying catalogue of solo releases, collaborations, and production/writing/instrumentation credits, Fantastic Thoughts is Nate Mercereau’s clarion call. The sound of a thousand dams breaking simultaneously. A hootin’ and hollering tantric affair that dares the listener, “What if you did?’” What if you sang out with a resounding, heart-forward, ‘YES!’” — sang it with your whole chest? If the beat poets abided by the maxim “first thought, best thought,” Fantastic Thoughts stakes a claim on the plain of imaginary where every thought is best (yes, fantastic, even). The resultant record is, without fail, maximalist—overflowing with ideas, varied influence, hairpin turns, and recursive processes—but it is also wildly (one might even say transgressively) sincere, and not infrequently vulnerable. From the first proggy breakdown of “There’s Something Here ...” (in many ways the album’s thesis statement) to the whispered mantra of “Resonant Angle, Seer Within,” we are borne atop a ceaselessly cresting wave of raw power and giddy delight. Mercereau’s is a singular vision, and yet, to anyone who has doggedly pursued the music, these sounds, these choices, will be instantly familiar.