Pitchfork

It seems appropriate that California folkie Nick Castro has invitingly titled his new record Come Into Our House, since it's clear from the opening notes that he wants his listeners to feel comfortable. For his third album, Castro has again returned to the familiar climates of 1969-75 UK folk-rock, making certain not to allow any harsh outbursts or sudden movements that could disrupt his lush, classicist stride. Unlike other such fringe folk-related acts as Charalambides or Six Organs of Admittance, Castro seems disinterested in testing his music's improvisational boundaries, yet with the help of his talented supporting cast he is still generally able to work his affectionate folk recreations into something recognizably his own.

On 2005's Further From Grace, Castro was backed by the Poison Tree, a group comprised of musicians like Josephine Foster and various members of Espers. This time the Poison Tree has made way for the Young Elders, an even-looser ensemble that features contributions from former Cul De Sac drummer Chris Guttmacher, In Gowan Ring's enigmatic vocalist B'eirth, and Current 93's Joolie Wood, among others. But despite all this assembled talent, the Young Elders lack the easy chemistry of Castro's previous group, and too often sound like an anonymous collection of studio musicians rather than a full-fledged band. This effect is accentuated by the group's freewheeling instrumentation, as the musicians cycle restlessly through such exotic sounds as Celtic harp, tenor recorder, Turkish saz, and a wide assortment of Middle Eastern percussion.

Much to Castro's credit, however, everything on Come Into Our House sounds wonderful. The beatific "Sleeping in a Dream" cascades out from a simple Bert Jansch-like folk song into vibrant streams of mesmeric drone and percussion, drifting gracefully into extended pan-ethnic instrumentals like the North African-tinged "Alter" or the spacious Morricone interlude "Voices From the Mountain". Co-vocalist Wendy Watson takes the lead on the album's enchanting version of Jean Ritchie's "One I Love", while Castro's lively piano work underscores his further debts to progressive Irish folk-rockers Mellow Candle. The lengthy "Lay Down Your Arms" is laced through with a requisite dose of Avalon Ballroom acid guitar, its supple electricity helping to balance out some of the Young Elders' more florid New Age/medievalist tendencies.

The main drawback to Castro's reverential approach, of course, is that the vintage underground folk-rock he celebrates is currently growing less obscure by the week. Archival labels like Sunbeam, Shadoks Music, and Radioactive have filled the shelves with an endless stream of handsome reissues, making available a bounty of previously obscure psych-folk rarities. Against this suddenly crowded field, Castro's tradition-steeped work-- lovely though it is--can seem downright conventional, and his clean, nondescript vocals and slushy post-hippie lyrics begin to look like sizable limitations. Still, there's more than enough on Come Into Our House that should comfortably satisfy devoted fans of the genre, as well as the occasional glimmer that suggests Nick Castro might someday be ready to match his skill with a healthier measure of reckless ambition.