Calgary musician Ryan Bourne recently dropped his debut album with some of the city’s finest musicians helping to make it happen. Supermodern World of Beauty is a confident first recording that ought to take little time in becoming a favourite for those who enjoy the lighter end of psychedelic folk rock. But there’s more than folk rock going on here. A little bit of bottom-end moody stuff goes a long way in breaking the consistency of the trippy psychedelic stuff. In fact, this is a pretty diverse album all around. The opener, “Calling From Beyond” is a grabber for sure. Good full sound, crisp production and some tasty piano and horns make for a strong lead in. What follows in the next nine tracks is a winding road through trippy realms of freak folkrock, atmospheric meditations of sound. The quality that ties this music together is vintage. It’s got that ’60s folk rock revival thing going on both in the recording and music offered. There are shades of Chad Van Gaalen in many of these songs, which is sensible being that Van Gaalen’s rhythm section is also Bourne’s, but this isn’t a case of borrowing someone else’s sound. These are simply musical shadows cast respectively.

Some debuts come off as immature or lacking in a certain punch that make you take notice, but this one comes complete with punch and leftovers. Supermodern may not shake your world to the core right away, but stay with it. There is a nice warm urgency to this music that is definitely worth the time spent.