New i-fls: Diary Of Spectre

Memories are imperfect things. That’s something home-recording artist i-fls understands so well, especially on his latest collection Diary Of Spectre. We like to treat nostalgia as something warm, something that gets stirred up in us and reminds us of simpler times. Yet that’s just the stuff of movies – nostalgia, once treated as a disease, can be an unpleasant sensation and can sneak up on someone, triggered by a glimpse of something and gone seconds later. i-fls realizes thoughts of yesteryear can glisten like on “Poolside” or hang in the air like “Her Singing,” but he also realizes it can be quick and brutal. See opener “Pen Name,” where his music ripples and threatens to break down at any second…only to cut out suddenly. Every song on Diary Of Spectre, excluding the bonus tracks, lasts less than two minutes, and vanish as quickly as they came, turning into a new recollection. Rarely is there anything tangible to grasp – only on the fragile “Citrus Decay” does something specific crop up, a voicemail that sounds weathered by time – most songs wisping by. All year, i-fls has been exploring this past-evoking sound, a mostly instrumental approach meant to stir up feelings about things lost, and Diary Of Spectre is his latest, wonderful installment. Get it here.