Gather, Form & Fly

The relentless re-embrace of acoustic campfire ponderings and singalongs may seem a bit strange in the 21st century, but as far as everything progresses, there will always be a harkening back to some form of a mythic lost paradise of the form. That said, Megafaun are just as taken by quietly tortured dark-night-of-the-soul whisperings, lo-fi oddities, and shards of feedback shade as they are of banjos and summertime evenings, giving Gather, Form and Fly a bit of an unsettled edge at various points. Songs like "Kaufman's Ballad" and the slightly goony swirl of "Impressions of the Past," shifting from marches to piano breaks and more, make for more fun than the straightforward if attractive enough compositions like "Worried Mind" and "Solid Ground." At their strongest, as on the brawling, complex "The Process," the trio verges towards the explosive thrill of an act like Akron/Family if not reaching that act's effortless genre recombination.