Genre:  Noise Ambient / Industrial / Drone / Experimental

Track List

Disc 1 – Retrospective

01 Accident Investigator
02 Buzzbase
03 D.E.M.
04 Domestic Resonance
05 Eerie A
06 Firestarter
07 Gramophone
08 Grayday Friends
09 Machine Breath
10 Space Traveler
11 Spider’s Ladder
12 Wind in the Door

Disc 2 – Suspension

01 Pale Hearts 3
02 Vogue On
03 Aquiver C
04 Suspension
05 Zogwave 3
06 Toy Tugboat
07 Moon Bog Edit
08 Suspension 2
09 Up Loose
10 Feeding Time

The first thing that struck me when I received this release was just how nicely presented this it is, being packaged in a round tin with a label on the top bearing a large M superimposed on what appears to be a magnified pollen particle. Inside you get the two discs secured to each other via a dual hub, an idea I had not seen before, and a little folded piece of card printed with all the relevant details. I was expecting quality things from the music based on the care and thought that had gone into this release and I am glad to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

Mystified is the brainchild of Thomas J. Park and he has been prolifically active since 2003, as his discography readily attests, and he has collaborated with Robin Storey of Rapoon and appeared in Spin magazine for his compositional and dj-ing skills. This 2-disc set comprises a retrospective of older work and unreleased material from between the years 2003 and 2006 (naturally titled ‘Retrospective’) and a disc of ten newly recorded pieces from 2007. One of the first aspects of Mystified’s music that jumps out at the listener is that Park seems to understand the potential of noise of whatever species to communicate mood and ambience, and that his pieces are very carefully constructed around this idea and he uses his materials to very excellent effect. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that the material speaks to him in some arcane manner and in turn he communicates with them, in an effort to comprehend their very nature and to tease out their fullest potential and in that sense he can be said to be a true artist. The sounds used on here comprise everything from radio-static type noise, treated field recordings, percussion and even a piano, in fact anything that can be used as a weapon in his sonic arsenal.

Park has the ability to weave tales and moods around the titles of his pieces with just the right noise and song structure, for instance, the very first track on Disc one, “Accident Investigator” with its insistent road-drill noise and laboured breathing speaks volumes and brings to mind scenes of emergency services extricating injured people from mangled machinery. “Eerie A”, again on Disc 1, is an alien swamp in the small hours, inhabited by coldly chirping and droning insects and haunted by a banshee malevolence while further along the disc we get “Machine Breath”, giving life to pulse-less circuits and muscle-less iron and steel and spinning motion and presence out of a minimalistic tapestry of sounds. But I have to say that my favourite track on this first disc is “Spider’s Ladder”, the piano refrain instantly conjuring up images of some arachnid dancing up and down a silken thread in a musty old home somewhere, an exquisite little piece that menacingly captures that image absolutely perfectly.

Moving onto the new material on Disc 2, “Suspension”, it’s immediately apparent that Park has lost none of his drive to experiment and evolve his music further. There’s much more of a coldly electronic ambient feel to this one, nevertheless there’s a variety of treatments on display here from tribal glitch (“Aquiver C”) to icy cold alien atmospherics (“Vogue On”; “Suspension”) and yet again from the noise drone engines of “Zogwave 3” to the eerie ghostly insect-ridden ambience of “Moon Bog Edit”; consequently there is more of a unifying thread running through this album than ‘Retrospective”. Park still weaves his sonic magic with a deftness and intelligence that should be a lesson to many an artist out there, that understanding what you’re trying to do and how you use what is at your disposal to achieve it is of vital importance to your art.

This is one of those times that brings home to me why I enjoy what I do so much – that in amongst the dross and muck you eventually find the gem that makes it all worthwhile. Discovering the music of Mystified has indeed been one of those exquisitely lucky strikes for me.