Yes, Plants are a West Coast freak-folk band. No, they do not submit to the traps that already are turning the genre into music for stoned rich kids only. Yes, there are the off-key vocals and the ever-handy singing saw, and there is all sorts of psychedelic praise for the earth and our harmony with it. But Plants truly offer a sweet insight into that harmony; their lyrics are lilting but not fey; ?Seedling? and ?Roots? are challenges as well as odes. Likewise, the music draws more from trad. Folks and psych sources rather than outsider atonality.

Core members Joshua Blanchard, Molly Griffith-Blanchard and Jesse Stevens benefit from the help of the Buehlers Ben (percussion, bass) and Jason (banjo and something called a piano box) to round out the sound and add mystic tones. Listening to ?A Hidden World Exposed? one can see ?Photosynthesis? as a freak-folk record that actually could have been recorded in 1968. Plants make you think, and feel, and smile, and they do with sincerity and purpose. There is hope for Old Weird America yet. 6/10 -- Mike Wood (15 May, 2007)