Population II have been one of the great unspoken arguments for Montreal's psychedelic underground for years now, and Maintenant Jamais — their Polaris Prize-shortlisted third album — is the record that makes the argument undeniable. "Prévisions" is the track that crystallizes everything the trio do best: drummer Julien Deslauriers locking into a motorik pulse that feels simultaneously ancient and airless, while the guitars and organ spiral outward in waves of acid-soaked improvisation that somehow never lose their structural grip. It is the sound of a band operating at the exact center of their abilities, which in Population II's case is a very strange and wonderful place to be.
The album title translates roughly to "Now Never" — a temporal paradox that suits music this committed to collapsing the distance between krautrock's mechanical precision and free jazz's organized chaos. Population II draw from Magma, Soft Machine, early Can, and the specific strain of Québécois art rock that produces music for nobody but itself, which is exactly why it connects so hard when it finds you.
Originally posted by raven sings the blues · ♥ 1 favorite on Hype Machine