Altered Zones

The globetrotter/current Portland dweller known as The Spookfish recently gave us a teaser of Moth/Butterfly, a vinyl release that’s planned to include a book of companion works by Buan, Korea based painter Britt Kee Irvin. The music itself is the result of a reordered and simplified approach that came about following the theft of a laptop while traveling in Mongolia and all the not fun things to deal with that follow a musician losing any important piece of gear.

Given that, it’s fitting that one of The Spookfish’s most intriguing and challenging tracks is entitled “Mongol”. Straying away from concrete pop structure, the rhythm and melody build slowly side by side, only to have a tangled mass of dissonant synths and distorted drums swell to the forefront. After that harsh composite begins to fade away, it becomes clear that its core elements were actually present the whole time. It takes most shoegaze and psych rock acts about twice that long to follow that same arc. --Luke Carrell, International Tapes

MP3: The Spookfish: "Mongol"

Keep an eye on Spookfish’s Bandcamp. More details on Moth/Butterfly are forthcoming, and the release is expected in the Spring