Sea Monkey See – Mookie Island (2015)

Sure, there is a bit of intellectual polarity between an album bearing the name Boy Genius, and its opening track ‘Fartigan Cardigan’ about a anarchic cardigan whose rebellious propensity manifests in its farting on people. But what do Sea Monkey See care? The take home message of their releases to date is that there is no message. Everything is facetious, and nothing should be taken seriously.

Boy Genius made a rather abrupt mark on the math rock scene last year. In a similar fashion, Sea Monkey See’s latest effort Mookie Island has seemingly sprung from out of nowhere. Mookie Island revives much of the impulsiveness and tomfoolery that encompasses fellow LA-ians (and at least one member of Sea Monkey See) 100 Onces: impetuous guitar phrases, facetious song titles, and multiple genre switches. While previous releases Sea Monkey Do and Boy Genius relied on throaty vocal work, Mookie Island is more of an instrumental affair. There are the unquestionably prog rock and post rock sensibilities in ‘Banana Breath’, and the thunderous metal riffs in ‘Greasy Reece’. All in all, it’s a carefree math rock salad.

When I was a kid, I collected all sorts of stuff from around the neighbourhood to put it on a fire. There was no deep philosophical motivation, no systematic framework. I just wanted to see how different stuff disintegrated when it was set on a flame. Like other key players on the LA Motherturf collective, Sea Monkey See are not out to adhere to a clear scope or idea. Mookie Island‘s music is multifarious, covers a lot of territory and, like my pyromaniac past, is just for fun.