out of phase

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This is still one of my favorite releases I have made.

Originally, “the moon goes out of phase,” “the moon talks back,” and “out of control” were planned as a smaller release called Jupiter IV, meant as a follow-up to Jupiter II. They were made around the same time and sit close together stylistically. The intro of “out of control” was originally meant to open Jupiter II, but it was cut.

The album title comes from the first track, “the moon goes out of phase.” That track is based on a simple surreal idea: the sun would slow down, and the moon would drift out of phase as a result.

This was my second release where space is a prominent theme, after Jupiter II. Part of it was also informed by a fear I had as a kid related to the moon. There is no strict storyline across the album, and a lot of the tracks are left open.

“The moon goes out of phase” was made in a pretty experimental way. The intro guitar was recorded using a deodorant can as a slide, which causes the dissonant tone. The noise section is vocals through a feedback chain. The final long vocal section is reversed. That was done by recording a chromatic chord progression in reverse and flipping it back afterward.

“How to go to heaven” is a demo that I slowed down and reversed. It worked. “Between the trees” is fully recorded on banjo. It is a short ambient piece and functions as a break in the sequence. “Birth of an atom” is the closer. It is a slower, longer ambient track, and it works as an ending after a short and fragmented record.

Earlier versions of Out of Phase were longer, with four extra tracks, running about 35 minutes. I removed those tracks because they did not feel like core pieces, and I preferred the idea in a more concentrated form. The shorter version also benefits from feeling more fragmented. The core tracks were always “the moon goes out of phase,” “the moon talks back,” “out of control,” and “birth of an atom.” Some of the removed tracks were later reused elsewhere.

In terms of structure, the album often avoids standard song forms. A lot of it is either fairly structureless, done in one continuous movement, or built from sections that each act like a small track on their own. If you want an entry point, start with “the moon goes out of phase” or “the moon talks back.”

The original master is very quiet. A new master exists as Out of Phase+. It is not meant to replace the original. The main change is level. It is louder, but keeps the dynamics of the original.

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"There was a huge horse you could play with like it was a dog. At some point, an argument started in the neighborhood group chat because it turned out the horse could open doors by itself, and nobody knew who it belonged to. Then, at one point, the horse actually opened the shed door and the back door on its own and walked into the living room. We had a glass partition between the kitchen and the living room, and it had smashed it."