Our ongoing spotlight on new music in New Orleans this week illuminates a strangely unlit place: the dark, experimental rock of I, Octopus. The four-piece outfit gigs constantly, has been around for years and seems incapable of writing a bad song. Yet it remains among the more obscure groups in the city. Why? These inspired instrumental head trips wouldn’t seem such a steep hill to climb for a region weaned on jam bands, free jazz and circuitous zydeco.

“428,” from Helping Others Help Themselves

A finely sewn tapestry of guitar texture, the intensity building via subtle changes in decibel levels to a salve-like bridge that brings together a murky-as-the-Mississippi intro, a sinister midsection and a moonwalking finale. Wonderfully moody and mysterious.