| Moonface — This One’s For The Dancer & This One’s For The Dancer’s Bouquet (2018) |
Moonface — This One’s For The Dancer & This One’s For The Dancer’s Bouquet (Nov 2, 2018) 
≡ Moonface is singer, songwriter, keyboardist Spencer Krug, known previously by his former bands Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes and Swan Lake.
≡ Though this is the last Moonface album, this by no means marks the end of me writing, recording, and performing outside of Wolf Parade (my other thing.) I want to streamline and compartmentalize my music into two distinct parts: my participation in the loud, electric world of Wolf Parade, and then a more acoustic, open~ended and contemplative world of Spencer Krug, with a looser structure around how and when music is released and toured. In no way do I plan to stop working solo, it’s simply that the record label + album~cycle paradigm that once worked for a small name like Moonface no longer makes sense. So I’m putting all that away, excitedly, in order to find a new way of working that will allow me to release and tour music in a more natural, real~time rhythm, less tied to cycles, names, and the past.
≡ Right now, writing this, I suppose I should appreciate the album which is already finished. And so here’s a final reason to put Moonface away: I never made an album under that name I was embarrassed by, and this is one of my favorites, so I may as well get out while I still can, on a personal high note to boot. Take this album as a sort of parting gift before Moonface sails into oblivion; the alter~ego’s final offering. I hope you like it. I really do. I hope you find some excitement or meaning or positive revelation within.
Born: May 4, 1977, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Location: Penticton, British Columbia ~ Montreal, Québec, Canada
Album release: Nov 2, 2018
Record Label: Jagjaguwar/Outside
Duration: 48:45
Tracks:
01. Minotaur Forgiving Pasiphae 6:32
02. The Cave 4:56
03. Minotaur Forgiving Knossos 4:57
04. Heartbreaking Bravery II 5:23
05. Last Night 3:50
06. Minotaur Forgiving Minos 4:16
07. Aidan’s Ear 4:39
08. Minotaur Forgiving Theseus 5:46
09. Sad Suomenlinna 6:46
10. Minotaur Forgiving Daedalus 3:29
11. Okay to Do This 4:35
12. Dreamsong 8:04
13. Hater 3:44
14. Minotaur Forgiving the White Bull 5:31
15. Walk the Circle in the Other Direction 4:22
16. Minotaur Forgiving Poseidon 6:25
℗ 2018 Jagjaguwar
Review
By Alex Hudson, Published Oct 30, 2018. Score: 8
✹ The latest record from Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug is actually two albums: nine of the tracks are jazzy, sax~centric art~rock jams, while the other seven are marimba~based epics sung with a vocoder and featuring lyrics about the Greek myth of the Minotaur. On their own, both albums would be uniquely experimental; together, they’re downright bizarre.
✹ This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet is a disorienting listen: the two sessions are interwoven in the tracklist, rather than presented as A~ and B~sides, meaning that the whole thing tick~tocks between avant~rock and futuristic calypso. It’s an admirably strange structure — one that doesn’t make much aesthetic sense, but keeps things unpredictable for a whopping 83 minutes.
✹ The juxtaposition of the two is particularly flattering on the marimba songs. With the cascade of plinking marimbas, wacky vocoder singing and detail~rich lyrics about the Minotaur, it’s the sonic equivalent of being bombarded by an avalanche of gumballs.
✹ Compared to these neon soundscapes, the more rock~minded songs don’t stand out quite as much, but they have their own subtle beauty: the minimal grooves of „Sad Suomenlinna“ sound like krautrock by way of Radiohead, while the simmering „Hater“ suddenly explodes with sublime swirls of horns.
✹ Krug has said that this is his last Moonface album before he abandons the alias and begins releasing music under his given name. With that in mind, This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet is a weird and wonderful farewell from the idiosyncratic project.
✹ https://exclaim.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrugSpencer
Label: https://jagjaguwar.com/
_____________________________________________________________
| Moonface — This One’s For The Dancer & This One’s For The Dancer’s Bouquet (2018) |
≡ Though this is the last Moonface album, this by no means marks the end of me writing, recording, and performing outside of Wolf Parade (my other thing.) I want to streamline and compartmentalize my music into two distinct parts: my participation in the loud, electric world of Wolf Parade, and then a more acoustic, open~ended and contemplative world of Spencer Krug, with a looser structure around how and when music is released and toured. In no way do I plan to stop working solo, it’s simply that the record label + album~cycle paradigm that once worked for a small name like Moonface no longer makes sense. So I’m putting all that away, excitedly, in order to find a new way of working that will allow me to release and tour music in a more natural, real~time rhythm, less tied to cycles, names, and the past.
≡ Right now, writing this, I suppose I should appreciate the album which is already finished. And so here’s a final reason to put Moonface away: I never made an album under that name I was embarrassed by, and this is one of my favorites, so I may as well get out while I still can, on a personal high note to boot. Take this album as a sort of parting gift before Moonface sails into oblivion; the alter~ego’s final offering. I hope you like it. I really do. I hope you find some excitement or meaning or positive revelation within.
Born: May 4, 1977, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Location: Penticton, British Columbia ~ Montreal, Québec, Canada
Album release: Nov 2, 2018
Record Label: Jagjaguwar/Outside
Duration: 48:45
Tracks:
01. Minotaur Forgiving Pasiphae 6:32
02. The Cave 4:56
03. Minotaur Forgiving Knossos 4:57
04. Heartbreaking Bravery II 5:23
05. Last Night 3:50
06. Minotaur Forgiving Minos 4:16
07. Aidan’s Ear 4:39
08. Minotaur Forgiving Theseus 5:46
09. Sad Suomenlinna 6:46
10. Minotaur Forgiving Daedalus 3:29
11. Okay to Do This 4:35
12. Dreamsong 8:04
13. Hater 3:44
14. Minotaur Forgiving the White Bull 5:31
15. Walk the Circle in the Other Direction 4:22
16. Minotaur Forgiving Poseidon 6:25
℗ 2018 Jagjaguwar
Review
By Alex Hudson, Published Oct 30, 2018. Score: 8
✹ The latest record from Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug is actually two albums: nine of the tracks are jazzy, sax~centric art~rock jams, while the other seven are marimba~based epics sung with a vocoder and featuring lyrics about the Greek myth of the Minotaur. On their own, both albums would be uniquely experimental; together, they’re downright bizarre.
✹ This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet is a disorienting listen: the two sessions are interwoven in the tracklist, rather than presented as A~ and B~sides, meaning that the whole thing tick~tocks between avant~rock and futuristic calypso. It’s an admirably strange structure — one that doesn’t make much aesthetic sense, but keeps things unpredictable for a whopping 83 minutes.
✹ The juxtaposition of the two is particularly flattering on the marimba songs. With the cascade of plinking marimbas, wacky vocoder singing and detail~rich lyrics about the Minotaur, it’s the sonic equivalent of being bombarded by an avalanche of gumballs.
✹ Compared to these neon soundscapes, the more rock~minded songs don’t stand out quite as much, but they have their own subtle beauty: the minimal grooves of „Sad Suomenlinna“ sound like krautrock by way of Radiohead, while the simmering „Hater“ suddenly explodes with sublime swirls of horns.
✹ Krug has said that this is his last Moonface album before he abandons the alias and begins releasing music under his given name. With that in mind, This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet is a weird and wonderful farewell from the idiosyncratic project.
✹ https://exclaim.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrugSpencer
Label: https://jagjaguwar.com/
_____________________________________________________________