The Picturesque Nova Scotian country of Lunenberg is not only known for its bountiful population of Balsam Fir Christmas Trees. No, deep within the heart of its Delphic forest range lies the Prism Ship, a place with mysterious dimensions potentially comparable to the Black Lodge. It is most definitely the spiritual home of Jay Crocker’s latest incarnation, JOYFULTALK, and it is where he created MUUIXX, one of my absolute favourite records released in 2015.
Many devotees of experimental music across Canada will know Crocker as an essential member of Calgary’s own experimental music community, contributing to projects such as NOmoreShapes, Ghostkeeper & Recipe From a Small Planet. Located in Nova Scotia aboard the Prism Ship, he has now released two collections of music under this new alias, including Sappy Tape (a special release in conjunction with Sappy Fest 9), along with other solo albums released under his own name.
While MUUIXX certainly shares in some of the lo-fi, IDM vibrations that run through the veins of Sappy Tape, it travels far out into some truly extraordinary realms. Bubbling, decalescent layers of sound reduce into an intense, intense agrodolce of dreamy hypnotic psych-folk raga patterns, throbbing, 8-bit desert kraut rhythms, and grainy, sinister instrumental hip-hop pulsations. The transitions within each song are absorbing and aqueous, appearing suddenly out thin air, before vanishing only moments later. “Buschbabies” introduces the listener with the soundtrack of a NES game based on an adventure tripping on mushrooms in the basement of the Smiling Buddha, meanwhile the zen, mechanical hymns of “Pommel Horse” transport me to the valley of the wind, to meditate with the golden Ohmu.
This album is out now on the phenomenal Drip Audio, so for you fans of Prefuse 73, Black Mold & Daedelus, I would certainly suggest picking up this release immediately.
