El Pez Que Voló: Act II by A Flying Fish
Release date: October 31, 2025Label: Apollon Records / Gymnocal Industries
Continuing where the first act had left off, El Pez Que Volo (The Fish Who Flew) is perhaps one of the most bizarre, yet surreal stories to come out of the mind from inter-dimensional storyteller, Râhoola. Combining the sounds of gothic, avant-progressive, chamber, orchestral, spoken word, and something straight out of the worlds of Tim Burton, Alejandro Jordowsky, and illusionist, Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman.
Why do you think the album cover speaks of Zeman’s legacy? It does have some resemblance of the films that Râhoola brings to the table. From the moment ‘A Leap of Faith’, ‘Enter the Cave’, and ‘Face Thyself’ starts to creep up on you, it’s a movie inside your head as Rahoola sets up the terror that’s about to unfold. Most of the time there are moments that brings to mind; Diablo Swing Orchestra, The Blue Ship, Frank Zappa, Danny Elfman, and the Rock in Opposition group, Univers Zero.
If you think this is going to be a Disney animated movie, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is Râhoola bringing it to the forefront of a gorgeous animated flick, reminiscing of Fantastic Planet, Heavy Metal, Unicorn Wars, and the midnight classic, El Topo. Once we get into ‘Come Magenta’ and ‘By a Padder’, it becomes this massive fanfare with unexpected time changes where the character Teezuck, falls with the wrong crowd at the wrong time, and being a prisoner at his situation. Then, all hell breaks loose where it becomes the frantic situation of a crazy-like waltz that comes out of the blue.
And then on ‘Thin Amid All’, our hero spirals into this deep insane meltdown and being hypnotized by El-Gabaal, filled with brutal metallic crunches, spooky vocalisations, and the rock progressivo Italiano structures of Unreal City, La Coscienza di Zeno, then diving into the uncharted waters of Mr. Bungle. That’s how crazy A Flying Fish is, and we need to get crazy on how it sounds.
Listening to ‘The Lost Knight 3’ it’s like something straight out of the three Fleischer cartoon Popeye colour shorts; Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, followed by Ali Baba and his 40 thieves. Râhoola written this track as an alternate soundtrack to the three animated shorts, but with his own approach and arrangements to the craziness that’s going on.
This may take a while to get into the story, but with A Flying Fish, it is one of the most wackiest, stirring, avant-rock, and an animated rock opera that’s brought to life where Râhoola is definitely the one to check out, if you want to dive into the underwater cities of A Flying Fish’s music, this is a must-listen to check out, top to bottom.
