Flying Spiders: Still flying high

The presence of Isamu “Som” Jordan is all over the Flying Spiders’ new LP “The Pillaging Effigy.” The 2013 death of the group’s former frontman defines and drives the record: It’s an album about all the complicated stages of grief, and while the lyrics grapple with the loss of a leader, they also radiate an unabashed optimism.

The opening track, “Introduction (Let’s Remember),” announces itself as a tribute to Jordan’s legacy: “This is for a gentleman who saw our potential / For the man who moved us with his heart and his pencil.” It seems appropriate, then, that Jordan is smiling from inside of the CD case, illustrated as an astronaut floating through the cosmos in a bright red spacesuit.

“Pillaging Effigy” is the Flying Spiders’ first full-length album – they’ve released three EPs since forming in 2010 – and it was recorded in January at Spokane studio Amplified Wax. It furthers the band’s jazzy, brassy style of hip-hop, and most of the tracks were put to tape during a live session in a single sitting.

“We don’t want it to sound like the electronic music that’s popular right now, very polished, very clean and computer generated,” said the band’s producer and saxophone player Cameron La Plante. “We’re trying to carry on the same messages we had before of positivity and constructivism, rather than some of the negative things you hear in rap music.”

Andrew Hauan, who took over Jordan’s position as the Spiders’ main emcee, has taken to sampling Jordan’s lyrics: The track “Watchu Wanna” opens with the salvo “Practice forgiveness, learn how to let it go,” which Jordan had written.

“I’ll start verses with one of Som’s lyrics from the old EPs,” Hauan said. “We’ll reference things Som said or did. And I think that’s important. … We tried to pick the things that were really powerful, some of the key points to the songs’ messages.”

The album represents both a continuation and fresh start, and it exists as a document of a specific time in the group’s artistic evolution. They might be a different band, but they’re driven by the same spirit, and the record is shot through with themes of forgiveness, reconstruction and acceptance.

“There’s a lot of talk about Som, about missing him … and the idea of continuing,” Hauan said. “Most of it is about love in weird ways, loving your city, loving yourself or loving the people around you, loving your privacy.”

All of the songs on “The Pillaging Effigy” have been performed live, and both Hauan and La Plante say the response to this new iteration of the group has been overwhelmingly positive so far.

“It’s made me really happy to see the support still,” Hauan said. “People probably appreciate everyone in the band and what we’re trying to do. I can’t stress enough how much Som is still driving this thing.”

“And we’re not just saying that,” La Plante said. “What would Som do? We ask ourselves that a lot.”