PG Six’s The Well of Memory is certainly one of the year’s most essential re-issues and sonic experiences in general.

Pat Gubler’s early 2000s records are the stepping stone between the classic prog/psych-folk records of the 70s and the expansive young psychedelic bands of today. This is prime Head Heritage music, and without it, I doubt that many of the albums that I review here would exist as we know them now. So Amish Records is doing the lord’s work by reissuing and expanding these early PG Six albums to honor this important, foundational music, and to introduce it to a wider audience who either missed it on the first go around, or were too young to appreciate it at the time.

The Well of Memory is Gubler’s second album under the PG Six moniker, and it’s a stunning mix of various styles and flavors, including: 70’s UK folk rock, Harry Partch-like tonal experimentations, lo-fi acid casualty dirges and elemental field recordings of more trad folk sounds. It’s an LP that feels lived in, crafted at home amongst nature, friends and a vastly eclectic record collection. This hand-wrought quality is one of the most integral parts of the album’s whole identity and atmosphere. Thankfully, the re-mastering job by Giuseppe Ielasi was done so beautifully and tastefully for this re-issue, that the music feels even deeper, brighter and all-encompassing, without losing any of its grit or DIY charm.

The included bonus disk of previously unreleased live recordings and tracks from the original album’s sessions blend seamlessly into the rest of the material, making the entire double-LP play as a single auditory experience. The Well of Memory was already an intimate listen, but these more off-the-cuff supplemental pieces make you feel like you’re listening in to a private time capsule of exactly where Gubler’s creative mind and processes were at in 2004/2005.

To understand why PG Six was and continues to be such an influential figure in independently forged esoteric music, this expanded re-issue is exactly where you should start. Click here to get your copy on vinyl or digital today.

-KH