This One’s For The Dancer & This One’s For The Dancer’s Bouquet is an experimental, amorphous listen, oscillating between jazzier meditations and frenetic rock imbued with marimbas, xylophones, and steel drum. It’s made up of two distinct yet connected ideas; the music is culled from two separate projects, each with different collaborators, recorded in different studios, in different towns, in different years. The songs are sung from two completely different standpoints, blended into one long, single album. Half of the songs were written from the point of view of the Minotaur from Greek mythology, the other half written from Krug's own perspective.

Each side of the four-sided album is its own little journey, connected by a through-thread of density, of unmerciful darkness that colors every corner of the sound. In Krug’s own words:

“I never made an album under that name I was embarrassed by, and this is one of my favorites, so I may as well get out while I still can, on a personal high note to boot. Take this album as a sort of parting gift before Moonface sails into oblivion; the alter-ego’s final offering."

TRACK LISTING

1. Minotaur Forgiving Pasiphae
2. The Cave
3. Minotaur Forgiving Knossos
4. Heartbreaking Bravery II
5. Last Night
6. Minotaur Forgiving Minos
7. Aidan’s Ear
8. Minotaur Forgiving Theseus
9. Sad Suomenlinna
10. Minotaur Forgiving Daedalus
11. Okay To Do This
12. Dreamsong
13. Hater
14. Minotaur Forgiving The White Bull
15. Walk The Circle In The Other Direction
16. Minotaur Forgiving Poseidon

Moonface is the solo project from Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown.

“I called this thing ‘My Best Human Face’ not only because that’s one of my favorite lines on the album, but because I sometimes don’t know who I am, or if I’m as good as other people. The title speaks to the vague theme of identity confusion that is loosely woven into the songs - a reoccurring theme I only recognized after the writing was done. And so I conclude that this theme is not really important to me, or to the album. So then I plead with you: please, for the love of music, let’s not make ‘identity’ the talking point of this thing! The confusion exists for us all, sure, but that doesn’t mean we have to place it in the middle of our circle like a campfire. At end of it all, these are good time songs, meant to inspire good times in the listener. They were made joyously, with a stubborn love of music at their center. And while some of the content might be dark or sad, the memories of making these songs brings only gladness and gratitude, and it’s the construction, not the deconstruction, that I think we should celebrate.” - Spencer Krug

Moonface are joined on ‘My Best Human Face’ by Finnish band Siinai.

Since January 2010, Spencer Krug has used Moonface as a venue for home-recorded instrumental and conceptual experimentation, expanding the ideas he developed collaboratively with Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, and Frog Eyes. Releases under this moniker have come quickly, each distinct from the other. The ‘Dreamland’ EP and ‘Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped’ were conceptual excursions merging instrumental and thematic fixations. After moving from Montreal to Helsinki, Krug teamed up with the Finnish band Siinai to create a lush rock record - 2012’s ‘Heartbreaking Bravery’ - driven by the dark despair of a breakup. Staying in Helsinki, Krug set off on yet another creative departure, driven by a rediscovery of love and a reconsideration of the Moonface persona he’d created for himself.

The quietly stunning ‘Julia With Blue Jeans On’ is the fourth Moonface release, bringing a degree of intimacy and self-reflection unlike anything Krug has produced to date.

There are only two sonic elements on this latest album: Spencer Krug’s voice and his piano. Richly recorded, they interact seamlessly with one another. On the opening track, ‘Barbarian’, the piano unfolds with the hypnotic energy of Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert, Krug’s right hand doubling his vocal melody. On the closing track ‘Your Chariot Awaits’, Krug’s voice recedes after a minute as the piano swells for an extended showcase with modern classical undertones.

After nearly a decade, across a number of guises, we are well-acquainted with Krug’s inimitable town-crier vocals; on ‘Julia…’ we are introduced to a facet of his musical skill that feels conservatory-trained. This is Krug as singer-songwriter, moving beyond star poses to a vision that is at once more elegant and comfortable. Or, in Krug’s own language, on ‘Barbarian II’: “I have chewed through my beautiful narrative.” Much of Julia is taken with this chewing. ‘Love The House You’re In’ opens by masquerading as self-pity, with a statement that reads like a press release from someone who’s given up. “I regretfully withdraw my offer to try and improve myself,” Krug gently sings, establishing a self-reflexive foundation upon which he builds the album’s most universal, humanistic sentiment, and which he delivers via its most soaring melody.

Purposeful self-evaluation is one tactic for reinvention, but as Krug illustrates on the title track, everyday occurrences can prove transformative as well. The sight of a woman, clad in denim, briefly visible at the bottom of a staircase, he learns, is capable of “obliterating everything I’ve ever written down.” ‘Julia…’ is an ode in the classical sense, pivoting around the beauty inherent in the most simple, taken-forgranted sights. Krug acknowledges this, opening the song by admitting that “it’s a madman’s game, making the commonplace unreal.” What he leaves out in this admission, however, is the key to the countless charms of ‘Julia With Blue Jeans On’ - by expertly playing this ridiculous game, he can erase the madness that spawned it.

Spencer has garnered critical praise and a rabidly loyal fanbase in the Moonface realm, as well in other incarnations, including Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, and Frog Eyes.

TRACK LISTING

Barbarian
Everyone Is Noah, Everyone Is The Ark
Barbarian II
November 2011
Dreamy Summer
Julia With Blue Jeans On
Love The House You're In
First Violin
Black Is Back In Style
Your Chariot Awaits

Moonface is not a band but Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown. In early 2010 the first EP was released on Jagjaguwar. It was called ‘Dreamland EP: Marimba And Shit-Drums’, and sounded as the title suggests.

‘Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped’ was going to be another percussion album, not completely unlike the ‘Dreamland…’ EP, done with a vibraphone and some sparse guitar, extra percussion. Instead he made a long, drone-filled, lush and noisy album of intense volume, beauty and poeticism.

Music played with an organ, organ beats, organ beeps and bloops, and some digital drums. Music based on layers and loops, the hypnotizing sound of a Leslie speaker, and the onslaught of melody.

TRACK LISTING

1. Return To The Violence Of The Ocean Floor
2. Whale Song (Song Instead Of A Kiss)
3. Fast Peter
4. Shit-Hawk In The Snow
5. Loose Heart = Loose Plan

Moonface’s "Dreamland" record features approximately 20 minutes of music on a single side of a 12” LP.
This record will be accompanied by a dream journal insert on which the music is based.