Such is the sheer innovation that has been crammed into Big French’s self-released Stone Fish full-length, that it’s difficult to believe it was recorded on a Tascam 8-track. Granted, it has that scratchy, distant aesthetic throughout, but it sounds more like a comparable number of minds cobbled this one together. (Think Messrs Darnielle, Dylan, Hosford, Mangum, Prekop, Prewitt, Rosenberg and Vliet, or something.) That Quentin Moore came up with this one more or less alone, though, is great testament to his tremendous imagination, and lifted from it, Apartments for the West is the absolute standout; a peculiarly contoured, quite unique take on the Mountain Goats’ lopsided delights that, at two minutes, dissipates all too prematurely.

Stone Fish is available now, via Big French’s Bandcamp.