Far from just another acid casualty cult folk/country classic, I feel like Skip Spence’s Oar serves as a template for the kind of folk-adjacent experimentation that continues to take place today in acts like Troth or Nein Rodere.
Released in 1969, Spence seemed to tap into the same vein of basement folk that Dylan was toying with in upstate NY, the kind of murky, from-another-time return to standards and shellac-disc-era obscurity.
But where other country rockers and folkies attempted to capture a naturalism or in-the-room authenticity to their performances, Spence toys with the tracks in his primitive 3-track studio, warping vocals, close mic-ing percussion, and playing with the mix to create as psychedelic mind bender.
-Mitch