Stephen Molyneux – A Jaguar Mask
10.11.18 by Ryan Masteller

Northern Floridians: There’s only one thing that comes to your mind when you think of “jaguar mask,” right? Something like this, or this, or maybe even whatever the hell this is. Maybe this. Certainly this. But we’re a different breed, you and I, and when it comes to music, the words “A Jaguar Mask” conjure up only one thing: fight songs.

But we’d be wrong – dead wrong – in our assumptions in this instance, because what we’re dealing with here has nothing to do with football or northern Florida or anything remotely approaching a rhythm to stomp around to. No, here we mean Stephen Molyneux’s “A Jaguar Mask,” a cassette release on No Kings Record Cadre that features a “driftwood jaguar mask carving by Brian Flores, Hopkins, Belize, March 24, 2012.” It doesn’t look much like what I linked to in the previous paragraph, but the carving itself, especially presented in the filtered photograph above and displayed on the stunning risograph Jcard, is a sight to behold. It is after this piece that Molyneux titled his tape.

And there probably aren’t a lot of “outsider folk” artists who get compared to something like the Jaguars’ D-Line, and I certainly won’t be the first – I’ll even make it a point to say that “A Jaguar Mask” sounds nothing like an all-percussion ensemble. No, the Colorado-via-Tennessee Molyneux is much more nuanced, much less bombastic in his performance. In fact, we can refer to the cover again to inform our expectations about Molyneux’s music, because, as they saying goes, you can ALWAYS judge something by its outward appearance, books, cassette tapes, or otherwise.

So the hazy textures of Molyneux’s treated guitar and various keyboards are as timeless and familiar as the driftwood photo, grounding in the immediacy of one’s reactions to them yet ethereal as they float on the edges of memory. And while the shelving category is quite obviously “ambient,” snatches of melody sneak in through and infiltrate the foreground, laying the groundwork for the emotional reactions you’re sure to have. It’s quite simply gorgeous stuff.

The cross-section of the Venn diagram with “Jacksonville Jaguars fans” on one side and “Stephen Molyneux fans” on the other is very, very thin, I imagine. It may only be yours truly in the middle, come to think of it. But hey, somebody’s gotta occupy that unique space – might as well be me.

Grab a handful of these lovely cassettes and hand em out as party favors at your 2019 Super Bowl party, an event that will, of course, feature the Jacksonville Jaguars. Edition of 75.