The Flying Fish — First Flight
Full disclosure, the drummer of the Flying Fish, Suyash Medh, is a close friend who has never had a nickname. Before diving in, I want to note that he didn’t ask to be featured here. It’s just that I found the Flying Fish’s latest (and first) album that interesting.
First Flight borrows a lot of its vocabulary from the sentence-as-name post-rock bands of the early-to-mid-2000’s, such as We Lost The Sea and Explosions In The Sky. I remember a lot of the music from that scene being no-nonsense, tightly-played instrumental rock. I’d describe this album as just that, and add that a few listens in, its music always conjures in my mind an image of a four-piece spending an Indian summer jamming in the drummer’s bedroom (perhaps because my introduction to making music was as part of a four-piece spending an Indian summer jamming in Suyash’s bedroom).
I recommend giving this album a spin on any one of these quarantine afternoons. It’s streaming everywhere. And if you, like me, like the album, please join me in requesting the band for some sort of instagram/youtube album live stream/simulcast thing that all the cool bands are doing these days.
P.S. Shoutout to Siddhant Vernekar for the fantastic album art.
You can check it out on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
I have yet to hear an underwhelming Thou record. A decade after Heathen, Thou’s 2024 release, Umbilical, is just as fantastic a representation of Thou’s brand of sludgy doom. Or is it doomy sludge?