There’s something unassuming about Mammoth Grove’s Mammoth Grove EP. Tracked completely live in one session and released by the band in conjunction with Lazyman Records, the five-track offering has a humble, soft psychedelia to it, vaguely indie, but altogether more grooving and without the lofty apathetic posturing that seems to make up so much of the fashionista scene. Mammoth Grove is raw, and one can hear in listening the room that an organ or some other manner of psych swirling might fill, but that’s also part of the appeal of the release – where so much psychedelia is hell bent on lush noise and sounds so full they border on overwhelming, this Canadian trio has been able to affect a soothing and natural atmosphere with just guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Their material isn’t especially complex, but it has a calming effect that works well with the organic-mindedness the band shows in their name and in closing duo “Black Ocean” and “Deep Cove.”

Opener “Generation” (which is listed second on the CD) immediately links Mammoth Grove to a late-‘60s feel with the lines, “It’s about that time again/A generation’s sick of war again.” Guitarist/vocalist Devan Forster never really goes into full-on fuzz with his tone, but his bluesy lead work is both technically fascinating and grooving, and his voice, free of any discernable effects apart perhaps from some reverb, is well balanced in the songs. He clearly strains his voice in singing “Mammoth Grove,” reaching for some of the notes, but given that the EP is live and given the overall mood of the tracks, it works.

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