iji
Photo by Erin Birgy
iji just released their new already much beloved album Bubble today from Team Love Records and we present you with the following limited time album stream. Zach Burba and his fellow Seattle posse present what we have been told is the culmination of the band’s transcribed collective dream journals where R.E.M. fantasias guided the narrative that awaits you ears, mind & spirit. For those arriving late to one of the best kept open secrets of the northwest, there is no better time than now to become the biggest fan of iji’s peaceful & transcendental vibes that finds the group constantly challenging themselves to change creatively & naturally.
The visions begin on the opener “What’s Real”, to the dizzying flight of “Free Screening”, taking you on the trip of “Wild Music”, or the awakening found on “The Pattern Grows Clearer”, to moments where time become immaterial as heard on ultra-tender and lovely “Losing Track of Time”. Zach & company keep those good vibes grooving as heard on “Orange Peel Moniker” that moves with pep, soaring in slow motion on “Stretching Out”, forever branching out & blazing their own particular trail patterns like the flicker of “Candle Flame”. The feeling is always fun & friendly as enjoyed on the anything but stoic “Cold Statue”, the wild world of “Whooping”, the melancholy signs of the times as sung on “Notice Of Proposed Land Use Action”, right before leaving you with the bubbly finale of “What’s Happening” that will continue to jangle in your heart long after the album concludes.
Zach Burba provided the following insightful introduction to the new iji album Bubble and how dream journals played a crucial part to the records inception & realization:
Our keyboard player, Curran Foster, encouraged us to start writing down all of our dreams in the same journals on tour in 2014. Every night they would place one of two dream journals within reach before we dozed. The entries would be occasionally read out loud in the car and, often times, I wouldn’t even recognize my own dream until I saw my handwriting. Dreaming became a central focus of our trip. Life started to imitate dreams. The world became unbelievable.
For the five or so months that followed our return I practiced turning my mind off in a way that would produce lyrics that I can’t immediately detect significance in, but felt sure were important clues pointing towards what I needed to say. This process felt similar to deciphering dream images. I hoped that writing these songs would help prolong the feeling of blissful disconnect that enchanted that period of my life and at the same time bring some understanding to the confusion that came with it.
The new iji album Bubble is available now from Team Love Records.
