Yoo II avec Nolan Potter

When Montreal heavy-kosmischers Yoo Doo Right and acid-rockers Population II both found themselves in Austin for the 2025 SXSW fest, they figured the neighborly thing to do in their downtime between shows would be to take up the offer of Austin indie-psych multi-instrumentalist Nolan Potter to jam with them. What erupted out of the 90-minute session, about half of which appears on Yoo II avec Nolan Potter, is the kind of record that flows out of a quick-gelling, improvisation-driven excursion so focused on its destination that it finds a way to make the scenic route sound like the fastest. Atmosphere outranks genre here, as  krautrock, free jazz, noise, post-rock, and funk all blur together into a malleably fluid vehicle for locked-in ensemble work. And that allows for both a persistent, driving energy and a feeling of organic mutation. The two longest cuts, “Cavelier (We’re Going Down)” and “Ralliement,” both make the most of that interplay in rhythm and volume: the former emerges with a placid, guitar-fluttering slow-rise intro that snaps into breakneck speed in short order, NEU!’s velocity with John Gilmore’s intensity and Tortoise’s grace, while “Ralliement” escalates from a tense J. Spaceman astral death-march stare into a roiling uptempo tempest that practically declares Fun House and Meddle to be long-lost siblings. For further Floydery, check out “La Perla,” which takes the off-kilter bass groove from the seven-minute-mark of “Echoes,” gets it nice and zooted, and goes out cruising with it in a candy-painted land yacht; it’s reprised and elaborated upon in closer “Z. (The Alley Watcher)” after it glides through a velvety downtempo interlude that recalls the wavier moments of El Michels Affair’s spacious funk. And if there’s strength in their heaviness, there’s also warmth in their lightness; the swaying reverie of “Golfe du Mexique” thrums reassuringly like the aftercare of “Venus in Furs.”