Genre: Ambient
Track Listing:
01 Presence Drone
02 Look Below
03 Expect the Unexpected
04 Still Haunted
05 Epilogue
Poltergeist is one of the many little ambient gems scattered throughout the underground by brutally prolific ambient composer Thomas Park. As Mystified, he started his activity around 2002, and since then has released sheer volumes upon sheer volumes of small releases, including some collaborations with Nocturnal Emissions and Rapoon. Almost all of his releases are on either mp3 or CD-r, but together with his other projects, Thomas Park has created, in a relatively short time, a catalogue that would put Nurse With Wound, Merzbow, and Muslimgauze to shame in an instant.
His CD-r releases are like little musical seeds or artifacts he just sends out into the musical world, hoping they may somehow infect whoever may happen upon them. Either that, or simply failed laboratory experiments he’s sent out as pieces of a larger puzzle, teasing us while he soups up for an eventual full-length release. Nevertheless, what’s made its way into my lap is Mystified’s Poltergeist, released as a yellow-tinted mini CD-r. It’s a nice, short little 5-song taste of danceable electronic ambient, which is quite surprising, given the fact that this main project is promoted as being in the field of minimal ambient. Anyhow, if I wanted to hear that from him, there’s gallons to choose from!
Now while this little release doesn’t exactly blow me away with innovative composition, it’s still a rather nice little piece of ambient dance music, good for meditation, trance-induction, or any sort of mind-easing activity. It’s not really a dark ambient release, but there is a sort of eeriness about it. The structural compositions are very straightforward, with oscillating ambient thrums and throbs leading into and out of some simple IDM dance beat arrangements.
The percussion is really what drives this release, and through this album, a sense of constant flow and motion is portrayed, and though it is rather light-key, there is an element of darkness present, or at least an urgent sense of anxiety, as if running from something. The tracks are mixed into continuous play to add to this. The theme here is ghostly presences, and Mr. Parks achieves this effect through the usage of hollow oscillating tones and high register ambient sound as a backdrop to his techno embellishments. His aim is to create the feeling of wandering desolate hallways alone, yet watched, and always pursued. You are lost, there is no one around to help you, but you must keep moving. Something is following you, and you don’t want to even think about what it is, only knowing that if it catches up, something horrific will happen to you.
His stuff would also fit rather nicely on an action/sci-fi movie soundtrack, or on something by John Carpenter, who seems to be somewhat of an influence here. All in all, a short but sweet little ambient release, and I would definitely like to see what Mystified can do on a full-length album.
