The ambitious Beams go beyond straight folk

Toronto psychedelic-folk crew Beams plays Lee’s Palace on Wednesday. Ensemble adds a proggy feel, dark lyrics to a traditional genre

What’s the deal?

Although Toronto septet Beams tends to get labelled a “folk” act and employs some of the standard instrumental accoutrements of the genre — banjo, mandolin and singing saw among them — onstage and in the studio, the term is a little reductionist for the many ambitious things the band gets up to on its second album, Teach Me to Love.

Beams have their rustic moments, for sure, but they’re anything but traditionalists. Full of chugging, complex rhythms and curlicued, unpredictable arrangements, Teach Me to Love is often as “prog” as it is folk. These versatile girls and guys are, one suspects, as well versed in the work of, say, Tortoise — whose drummer, John McEntire, produced their 2015 single “The Gutters & the Glass” — as they are Joni Mitchell and they’ve covered Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill” in the past so there’s rather a lot more goin’ on in the mix than the simple “folk” tag might imply, even if you whack an “alt-” in front of it.

There’s a lot to digest on Teach Me to Love, and close rather than casual listening is recommended to fully get a grip on it. Not that it’s hard to listen closely to Beams, mind you; the gossamer harmonies of co-frontwomen Anna Mernieks and Heather Mazhar are as inviting as a warm breeze, even though that outward breeziness tends to mask the darker, questing tone of Mernieks’s unsettled lyrics.

Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences.

Says Mernieks: “We frame existential questions about our connection to the environment, ourselves and each other in lush, beat-driven, folk-tinged soundscapes."

What’s a song I need to hear right now?

“You Are an Ocean.” One of the new album’s more “pop” statements, this lilting acoustic ditty about the interconnectedness is one of the brainiest earworms out there at the moment.

Where can I see them play?

At Lee’s Palace on Wednesday, with Sun K, A Fellow Ship and Nikki Fierce as part of Canadian Music Week.