Dan Monaghan is a student here at NIU in the English education department. His album, Submarine Paratrooper came out recently, and it rules.

Instead of just a lesson in DIY recording and ethics, or a low-fi EP of guitar-based indie rock, Submarine Paratrooper is both. Recorded mostly on his cell phone and then mixed on a computer, this EP is jangly, dissonant and highly melodic. While it would be a stretch to say this album would be perfect for everyone, it was fun to listen to and certainly should be tried by fans of folk or experimental music. Monaghan uses effects to create miniature sound collages, sampling and piecing together bits and pieces and seamlessly incorporating them into his own brand of lo-fi freak folk.

Monaghan is a perfect archetype of the modern musician, hand-numbering the physical copies of the CDs he made and making small, three-hole punch collages for the album art. He is giving the album away for free download, and the four-song EP is certainly worth the time. The music shifts from ambient, to folk, to drone to electronic almost without stopping for air.

Submarine Paratrooper is not all fun and games, however, as “Abyssal,” the third song on the EP, deals with Monaghan’s experience as a witness to the Feb. 14 shootings in 2008. His ability to express the binary of normalcy (beforehand) and surrealism (everything afterward) of such an event without using lyrics is a testament to his ability as a songwriter, and he manages to capture the feelings that we all had that day: loss, sorrow and regret.

Please do not download this expecting it to be a bummer. Not all the songs are high-minded references to tragedy, and to be honest, “Abyssal” is an awesome song that stands alone, even without context. “Windows,” the last song on the EP, is a 13 minute-long song that really kicks into high gear with the heavily distorted guitar riff and haunting vocal melodies at the six minute mark, and the rest of the record is quite the engaging listen.

Most artists think so highly of themselves that they refuse to put out their works for free. Dan Monaghan, however, decided that he wanted people to hear it, regardless of financial commitment. So, do him (and all local artists, in a way) a favor, and download it today. Submarine Paratrooper is most certainly worth the space on your hard drive.