Mr. Spoonbill’s Wild Ride

A few weeks ago, I was checking to see if Tipper was working on any new material. I found out that he recently mastered an album called Zoomorphic by Spoonbill (aka Jim Moynihan), so I decided to check it out. I figured if Dave Tipper was involved in something it’d be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this good. It’s wild!

It’s a sound designers dream come true. Wobbly bass, foley sound effects, cartoon samples, warped synths, organs, flutes, kalimbas, trombones, slide guitars, broken egg shells, ping-pong balls, crunching food… you name it, it’s in there. Somehow, Moynihan is able to cram hundreds of sounds into each track while retaining structure, catchy melodies and sick beats. Zoomorphic can’t be pigeonholed into a single genre. It’s a mix of glitch-hop, IDM, dubstep, abstract electronica, folk and a touch of bluegrass.

A bit off topic… but about 10 years ago, my friend Liz and I were smoking in the dorm bathroom, looking out at the Philadelphia skyline. We were talking about the worst possible ways to die. For some reason, I thought that dropping acid at Zoobilee Zoo would be the worst way to go. Zoomorphic would totally be the soundtrack to that experience… only without the dying.

Zoomorphic is Spoonbill’s third full-length release. His previous albums are abstract as well, but are better categorized as broken beat, downtempo and experimental. Definitely worth checking out. All Spoonbill releases are available from Amazon and Addictech.

MP3: Spoonbill – Feather Leather

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