Yes We Mystic

To forgive is to let go, to release the pain that came before and start anew.

At the heart of Yes We Mystic's debut LP, Forgiver, is absolution. The wave after wave of sonic intensity that crashes therein is the sound of the Winnipeg five-piece grappling with their past and releasing their pain; the result is unrelenting drama and unrestrained instrumentation that make Forgiver an utterly enthralling listen.

The bold soundscapes crafted by Yes We Mystic are their most distinguishing feature. On paper, the band sound like they're another middle-of-the-road indie band getting by on anthemic and uplifting songs with no real substance, but in practice, Yes We Mystic's arrangements are darker than other cinematic bands, their lyrics richer, more poetic and shrouded in mystery. It's all enough to make Forgiver sound fresh and urgent.

Like so many songs on the record, opener "The Contest of Strength" begins and ends in two different places. Starting with scattered, softly played guitar chords, the whole band joins in once Adam Fuhr calls for a "celebration," and the track develops into a riotous affair. That same wildness drives the frantic "No Harm" and the sinister "Monument."

As Forgiver winds down, Yes We Mystic don't. On the steadfast "Odessa Steps" and the high-flying closer "Ceilings," every note is played with purpose and power that grab hold of you and drag you into their whirling chaos. From the beginning to the end of Forgiver, Yes We Mystic's ardent heart beats so fast, it will take your own breath away. - Exclaim!

Though I wasn’t familiar with Yes We Mystic prior to receiving the call to review their debut LP, Forgiver, the impression left by the Winnipeg outfit’s breakout work will be enough to stay with me for some time. Unabashedly emotional, lush and far-reaching art rock sensibilities permeate the record, produced by Canadian indie scene veteran Jace Lasek (of the Besnard Lakes and numerous other projects) in a style that brings a wide range of instrumentation – from strings and winds to wide open guitar textures to sequenced beats – into a cohesive space dripping with atmospheric character.

Yes We Mystic radiate a confidence beyond their experience level here, crafting delicately melodic passages and cranking the intensity up and up and up in glittering, thunderous fashion – much in the vein of other established Canadian indie artists coming in the wake of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne’s esteemed family band. There are vulnerable moments and heart-in-mouth tonal shifts, dynamic drumming and interesting experiments that weave synthetic textures into the wider orchestral-alternative canvas. Lyricist Adam Fuhr makes deeply personal and introspective lyrics flow without clutter or cliche.

“Monument” is a highlight here – for its thunderous toms, moody drone and strings, balancing emotive depth and tension. “The Contest of Wit” treats a ballad with a dose of oversaturated, crinkling and cracking vocal distortion, just one of the textural directions that Fuhr and Lasek lay out on the table. One gets the sense that nothing was made off limits in the making of this record: there are cellos, banjos, flutes, tape head warbles, synths, pump organs and who knows what else collected here, all finding their role in creating a diverse but cohesively personal record. “Born into Language” plays with the borders of arena-sized post-rock, and only “Odesssa Steps” falters by way of sounding more like a Hey Rosetta! B-side than it probably should.

Genuinely impressive as a piece of songcraft, a production statement, and an artistic window on complex ideas surrounding its titular theme, Forgiver has certainly made a statement and will be well worth a listen for fans of the beauty and power that defines some of the best acts on the Canadian indie scene. - Grayowl Point

In the heart of the Canada, among a vast expanse of prairies, lives a plethora of musical talent. Winnipeg, Manitoba may not be the first Canadian city that comes to mind when thinking of our country’s cultural hubs, yet their closely-knit community seems to have a knack for pumping out a bevy of diverse talents to crowds of all sizes. One of these acts, currently taking leaps and bounds out of the prairies and into hearts of listeners nation wide are the thoughtful, enchanting and powerful Yes We Mystic. Following up their much more folk-influenced 2013 release Floods and Fires, the band has served up two fresh songs on the Ep Vestige featuring heavier use of synths and electric guitars, while still preserving the rich organic feel offered by the stunning use of strings, horns and perfectly captured and produced percussion.

The first track of the two, Wood Wheel, begins with softly strummed electric guitar and mandolin, paired tastefully with swelling ambience, and the commanding vocals of singer Adam Fuhr. The drive of the song is soon taken over by staccato laden strings, and pounding drums, with the empty spaces filled with heart gripping layers of melody and a continued swelling dynamic. A moment of pronounced guitar shots and lightened drumming in the bridge breaks the tension for a moment before a bass heavy synth and multitude of layers of instruments bursts the song into its final epic crescendo.

With only 7 recorded songs released, Yes We Mystic, has already arrived at a fully formed sound that is distinctly their own. It will be interesting to see what else they are capable of as they grow as musicians and as a band. - Imveryape

Cliches weren’t always so cliche: they often start as solid original ideas, but overuse can transform them into something predictable and trite.

But when does something stop being a good idea, exactly? This notion has become a common thread in the lush, intricately layered melodies of art-pop quintet Yes We Mystic. Its new EP, Vestige, uses genre as a tool for experimentation, welcoming and incorporating sounds and ideas the band may not have been attracted to upon first listen.

“How can we take that and do it in such a way that we’ve never heard it before and give it new life?” asks
vocalist Adam Fuhr.

He points to the song “The Contest of Strength,” one of two that appear Vestige—the other track is called “Wood Wheel”—as a prime example of injecting some new perspective into a musical device.

“Near the end of that song, you have something that might be described as a bass drop; that’s a very strange thing to show up in our music,” he explains. “That just kind of came from experimentation and messing around in practice.”

This experimentation is showcased further in the five remixes that follow “Wood Wheel” and “The Contest of Strength.” Yes We Mystic approached artists and producers it had encountered through touring—Mark Mills, Andrew Judah, the Wilderness of Manitoba, Holy Hum and Edmonton’s own Doug Hoyer—and let them run wild with the two tracks. If it sounds at all repetitive to have an EP made up of two songs, plus remixes of those same tunes, it’s not. As Vestige progresses, you’d never know you were listening to the same songs, as each remix reimagines the tracks in entirely different ways.

“We were just so happy with how we got a wide array of things,” Fuhr says. “Doug has a really fun, dancey remix of ‘Wood Wheel’, all the way to Holy Hum from Vancouver [who] has this super cool, sparse, seven-minute orchestral mix of ‘The Contest of Strength.’ Then the others are somewhere in between there, so everyone brought their own flavour to it.”

Vestige acts as a bridge between Yes We Mystic’s previous album, 2013’s Floods and Fires, and the currently unnamed full-length it has coming down the pipe in June.

“We’re playing a lot of new songs for the first time on this tour,” Fuhr says. “There’s a couple of songs that we’re working on that are very connected to songs we’ve come up with in the past … we’re trying things like that for the first time. Sometimes after a song’s right done you come up with different ideas to explore that same kind of theme or kind of idea, and we’re trying for the first time to kind of run with that a little bit. So there are some songs that are connected other songs we already have out and might be familiar for some people.” - Vue Weekly

Originally formed in 2011, Yes We Mystic is a five-piece folk rock band from Winnipeg. Its sound is at once sombre and yet variably forceful – the introspective vocals of Adam Fuhr oscillate between brooding and spirited, while the eclectic instrumentation of Keegan Steele (mandolin, ukulele, percussion), Solana Johannson (violin), Katherine Walker-Jones (banjo) and Zachary Rempel (cello) provide diverse crescendos and energy. On Floods and Fires, the dynamic shifting of tones is mostly successful. Fuhr quietly muses “When we look back to what is here/And what is not/I see the monument/Whose time you say has come” on “These Roads”, after which a burst of violin and drums inject life and rhythm to completely transform the song. This five-track affair is merely a sample, though. Look for more Yes We Mystic in the coming months. - The Uniter

A new frontrunner is emerging in the world of Winnipeg indie folk. Yes We Mystic is a young quartet with lyrics and talent well beyond their age and their new EP, Floods and Fires, is an illustration of this.

The band is composed of Adam Fuhr’s deep vocals that range from a soft whisper to an urgent and powerful blow through your speakers, Keegan Steele’s impressive mix of mandolin, ukulele, percussion and vocals, Solana Johannson’s melodic violin and vocals, Katherine Walker-Jone’s foot stomp inducing banjo and bass and Zach Rempel’s cello playing, which is the cherry on top of this folk sundae.

This eclectic mix of instruments come together in a debut EP that hints of a wide range of influences, bearing resemblance to bands such as the Avett Brothers.

The four tracks featured on Floods and Fires deal with some deep lyrics, but the EP takes you through a mosaic of emotions. In short, this is an album for any situation. The tracks do not fail to bring you down into some somber self-reflection and back up again with their chanting choruses.

A real gem in this album is “Mademoiselle X Writes a Letter Home.” The range of harmonies can easily put the listener in a trance and Johannson’s violin comes out in full force, leading up to and featuring in a dramatic climax.

The band is described as delivering “both quiet acoustic melodies and soaring, triumphant crescendos.” This is shown to be true in tracks such as “Flashlight,” which features a slow start and builds up to some serious musical intensity.

This band is a Winnipeg hipster’s dream and they are so addictive that there is no doubt that they will reach fans in multiple music scenes. - Beatroute Magazine