OFF COURSE

Osees — 2026

“Dwyer lets the tape roll and the mutants roam free, creating an album that feels less written than discovered.”

Electric warriors arise, Osees have jumped from their monster closet to freak out your ears and mind! If you’ve been with The Fire Note for a while now, then you know this band has a storied history. I believe that 2012’s Putrifiers II was the third review I’d ever written — man how time flies. Fast forward 14 years and 16 albums later, OFF COURSE is the group’s 17th album.

What I noticed quickly is that this album draws from Dwyer’s other project, Bent Arcana, minus the sax. Almost like the leanings of free jazz, this outing was a more organic and unplanned experience, from the man’s mouth directly: “We jammed and jammed and jammed. I took the tapes home and ironed out some mutant tunes.” OFF COURSE is a “strange-brew” that not only spends a night in the master’s bedroom, but also wanders around the master’s manor, which is oddly full of funhouse mirrors.

With the title track starting off, Osees waste no time catering to fans who appreciate the early classics. Wavering into view like a mirage, the instrumentation pulses into chunky chords that have fallen right out of Carrion Crawler / The Dream. Dwyer sings as if he has a secret that he’ll tell you if you lean in closer. The track banks on that Osees’ explosive buzz before transforming into another track entirely. What really impressed me about this LP is how drummers Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone create a precise, robotic assembly line of hypnotic beats that are especially noticeable during “HECATE’S REFLECTION IS A TRICK.” “SYRINGE” is the shortest and one of the weirdest with distracting drunken babbling. It’s Dwyer talking about his “goopy center” that helps rescue this track. During the album’s description Osees calls out A Weird Exits’ ender “The Axis” when describing “THE BRUTE ON HIS KNEES.” Delivered like a dramatic soliloquy, this buzzy, fuzzy organ-rocker calls on Procol Harum and In the Court of the Crimson King’s choral cries to drive a somber end.

Like I said before, Osees return to a lot of their earlier psychedelic sounds. The album plays with sounds of muscular, psychedelic Ty Segall/FUZZ riffs. CFM fans will find something to like here too. Meatbodies, Wand, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Frankie and the Witch Fingers influences are also in there. This is an influence palette that all fans will be familiar with, as it’s really the song lengths that take center stage here.

To quote Thomas Wilde from his Abomination Revealed At Last review, “Abomination Revealed At Last isn’t easy listening.” OFF COURSE was an album that I truly wanted to rate lower, as some portions of the album I might even label distracting. I find that I like my Osees when they’re focused and honed like the tip of a bloody spear. It’s these reasons that I fell in love with Carrion Crawler / The Dream, Putrifiers II, and Floating Coffin. This album takes a lot of those tones, meanders them, and uses winding hypnotism, which is why it took multiple listens to catch on. If you’re looking for more Osees and need an elongated version of the group’s classic antics, then look no further. You need to get OFF COURSE.