This 3-track EP sharpens the Goats Peak palette, adding vocals and post-punk textures to the disconcerting mélange of dark psychedelia, early industrial and post-punk. The swirling horns, reeds, and analog synths remain, but the tone is less abstract, more confrontational. “The Hem” grasps with a dirty hand. “Year of the Brain” finds a worm at the heart of science. Closing track “Meet the Monster,” spins a lurching organ motif into a twitchy, starless night with Beefheart interpolation.

Year of the Brain

Goats Peak is the latest work of Weird North legend Jack Balles - best known for his time with Stagmummer (Sudden Death Records, No List) and sessions with studio masters like Steve Albini and Gggarth.  From a log cabin made of earth and wood in the interior Okanagan (BC) mountains, Goats Peak tracks the damp forest between dub, leftfield and industrial with a queasy pastoralism of warped wind and burnt electronics.  25 years of biting the ample. Test your drugs.