Pitchfork

Science has taken the fun out of out-of-body experiences just as it did with the Earth-centered universe, the Book of Genesis, and those Star Wars prequels with CGI where a soul should be. Still, the sensation of watching yourself from outside yourself remains plenty eerie enough for Mount Eerie, aka former Microphones leader Phil Elv(e)rum, who makes a similar experience a turning point on the forthcoming Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP's excellent "In Moonlight". Elverum opens in medias res, just whispery voice, analog hiss, and sparse electric guitar: "Walking down the road in the middle of the night/ Singing this song to myself." Harmonizing with himself over alternating guitar chords with some ringing notes that make me think of unjustly obscure early Blur song "Dizzy", he sets cinematic images of uncertainty and confusion around a simple, reassuring refrain: "I will find you/ I will find you/ I will find you."

Near the halfway point, the song leaps out of its skin. Elverum has an epiphany. That car he thought was coming? "It was no car/ It was me revealed in moonlight," he sings. That quiet little lo-fi song? It was no quiet little lo-fi song-- "In Moonlight" becomes a lurching, sludgy rocker, with bass and drums battering against some big-boned dinosaur riffs (science be praised!). Meanwhile, Elverum finds himself by finding, Zen-like, that you can't see fulfillment if you're focused on the search: "What I find will be found easily/ Only when I'm not looking for it/ Without looking for the morning in the sunset." Heady stuff, but fortunately the rest of the track is as physical as it gets, the pace picking up as Elverum slaughters his instruments-- his body on the ground while his axe reaches toward Alderaan. Or the moon, whatever.