World Gang Mechanic The Mushroom

A long-brewing collaboration between Plastiq Phantom’s Darrin Wiener and Modest Mouse’s Jeremiah Green — like-minded musicians, and two of the most enduring threads in the fabric of the Pacific Northwest’s music scene. World Gang evolved out of time spent on the road together, touring their respective projects — their shared reverence for ambient electronics, field recordings and EDM chasing the duo down into basements and out into nature in search of new sounds.

With "Mechanic the Mushroom" / "Dolphin Smiles," the Gang hunker down to deliver their first forays into proper song form, with unsurprisingly arresting results. Dolphin Smiles: A slow, "post-rave" burner — meaning it simultaneously is and isn’t rave music. A nearly perfect cerebral dancefloor machine, "Dolphin Smiles" is ultimately a techno song, but with a sense of musicality time-tested by years of live playing. The heady, detuned, and dissonant melodies introduced later in the track show true craft — the interplay of the dungeon-y trance lead, and the wet, kind-of-funky acid bass line recalling Cabaret Voltaire and the early Kompakt Speicher series.