The Fantastic Imagination – Moon Phases Volume One
3.29.18 by Ryan Masteller

There’s no way I approach this with anything less than a reference to that karate movie that everybody loves, the one with the waxing (both on and off). It is a classic underdog story, and if anybody knows anything about classic underdog stories, it’s the city of Philadelphia, home to The Fantastic Imagination. There, the man sometimes known as Josh Meakim meditates at the moon, memorizing its “phases” and combining their lunar influence with far-out synthesizer passages in a psychedelic stew. This beautiful hybrid will serve as the reference point for all other beautiful hybrids, informing them with ethereal scores sounding not only crystalline and new but also incredibly ancient at the exact same time.

And if you’re wondering if I’m just trying to see how many anachronistic action movie references I can fit into this writeup, you’d be right. Maybe it’s because I’ve been drinking from that flask I got (the cool one with the Celtic-y cross on it) from the weird vampire shop just off of South Street. Maybe the whole “Wax”-ing and “Wane”-ing thing is affecting me like a werewolf. At any rate, I wouldn’t fault Josh Meakim for throwing some straight punches, uppercuts, knife-hands, elbow strikes, backfists, roundhouses, snap kicks, sweep the leg johnnys, or cranes my direction, because I’m clearly not in my right mind. Is that the effect he has on me? Is that the effect “Moon Phases Volume One” has on me? Swells of burbling synths and clustering patterns forever wash over my ears like the ocean tides on a distant planet. Who says we’re talking about Earth’s moon here?

“Moon Phases Volume One” is available from Dub Sum in an edition of “50 handmade tapes with silver cassettes, sage, and black candles to engage spells.” I honestly can’t tell if the sage and candles come with it or you have to use some from your own vast stash.