Alternative rock band CaStLeS hails from North Wales and released its debut album Fforesteering on November 18th. The trio crafts music that swirls between the sounds of Os Mutantes, Ennio Morricone, and the mountains of home base Snowdonia. It’s a unique sonic brew of delightful voodoo grooves laced with psych riffs and hypnotic reverb- soaked melodies.

CaStLeS self-produced Fforesteering, splicing together elements of surf guitar music, kraut-rock grooves, and hypnotic psych-tinged vocal harmonies, and building them up into a unique sound.

A cut off the album, “Heed Your Desire”, premieres here. It’s a low-key folk number that’s infused with the mellow haze of a golden afternoon spent hanging out on a grassy mountaintop.

Formed in Snowdonia, Wales back in 2008 by brothers Dion and Cynyr Hamer, after various musical manifestations as a duo, they were joined by Derwyddon Dr Gonzo bassist Calvin Thomas. Early demos received radio play on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Wales and a TV appearance on S4 followed.

After a brief hiatus in 2011, the band wrote new material and released two well-received Welsh-language singles. Debut EP PartDepart continued the band’s ascendancy, along with a slew of live performances, including playing the BBC Introducing stage at the Reading & Leeds Festival.

Fforesteering picks up the themes of the PartDepart EP, which was released at the tail end of 2015. The album is inspired and possessed by the North Walian landscape and the location of the caravan within which it was recorded, with many songs brought to life simply by being out and about in the country.

The band says of the recordings, “Nature is a place of comfort and reflection, to retreat to and hide from it all at times. As a subject, it can be used as an analogy to human society and our own personal nature.”

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