Complementing an already dizzying catalogue of solo releases,collaborations, and production/writing/instrumentation credits,FantasticThoughtsis Nate Mercereau’s clarion call. The sound of a thousand damsbreaking simultaneously. A hootin’ and hollering tantric affair that daresthe listener, “What if youdid?’” What if you sang out with a resounding,heart-forward, ‘YES!’” — sang it with your whole chest? If the beat poetsabided by the maxim “first thought, best thought,”Fantastic Thoughtsstakes a claim on the plain of imaginary whereeverythought is best (yes,fantastic, even). The resultant record is, without fail, maximalist—overflowing with ideas, varied influence, hairpin turns, and recursiveprocesses—but it is also wildly (one might even say transgressively)sincere, and not infrequently vulnerable. From the first proggy breakdownof “There’s Something Here ...” (in many ways the album’s thesisstatement) to the whispered mantra of “Resonant Angle, Seer Within,” weare borne atop a ceaselessly cresting wave of raw power and giddydelight. Mercereau’s is a singular vision, and yet, to anyone who hasdoggedly pursued the music, these sounds, these choices, will beinstantly familiar.