“The bass was so funky and the synth sounds were unlike anything I had heard. It was one of those things we listened to over and over in the tour van in the early-‘90s.” Such were words of Phish bassist Mike Gordon in the Phishbill handed out to fans at the band’s 2018 Halloween show, where they introduced the obscure Scandinavian band Kasvot Växt to the world. Of course, Kasvot Växt never existed, their album i rokk was never a thing and it quickly became another fantastic stunt the band pulled off—a unique way to slip in 10 new originals into Phish’s rotation. And what do you do when you have new songs out in the world? Put them up on streaming and download services, immediately. Within days of the band’s Halloween gig, the set appeared on Spotify and iTunes for purchase—mastered from the original recording and ready for the larger public to discover the sounds of Kasvot Växt. So if you look at i rokk in the context of Phish albums that contain Phish originals, it’s clear that channeling an obscure Scandinavian group from the early‘80s that never existed did wonders for the band’s creativity. From start to finish, it’s the band’s best whole collection of songs, perhaps in decades. It’s weird like the early days, where turtles in the clouds mingle with with what space smells like, while notions of death lurk in the background. And while the songs are kept tight—not one topped the 9-minute mark—tunes like “The Final Hurrah,” the dark, groovy “Everything Is Hollow” and “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long” could be fantastic jam vehicles for the band to explore in the future. Or, if they wanted to, actually lay down in the studio. Why not faceplant into rock in multiple ways?