Genre:  Drone Ambient / Rhythmic Industrial

01 Cold Radiance
02 Haunted Drone
03 Deep Freq
04 Ten and Two
05 Moscow
06 Carnival Drone
07 Science Fiction
08 Polar Midnight
09 Happening
10 Sustain

Anyone who is into drone ambient or experimental music in general and still has not heard or heard of Thomas Park, Mystified, or even his new project Mister Vapor, must have been living on one of the many worlds that this album implies.  Its one thing to be prolific, its another to have a discography so large that one has to use the search feature on his discogs page to track down one in particular.  Yes, while Thomas Park is quickly becoming the American Merzbow from the ambient genre, it doesn't seem that his fast-paced nature takes away from his ability to create artistically sound ambient structures, as even to this day, the majority of his reviews appear to come out positive.  Popularity aside, Mr. Park is incredibly skilled in the minimal nature in which he composes, and one can perhaps attribute that to the experience he's gained through relentlessly creating music, and at times, simple sound, since 2003.

That being said, this (not-so) latest release, Science Fiction, runs the gamut from dark and drone ambient to death and rhythmic industrial, even briefly taking on the world of harsh noise.  Mystified's primary selling point has never exactly been the world of innovation, but rather the ability to put together a fundamentally sound and intriguing story while using the most minimal musical aspects and rhythms to accomplish his goal.  Science Fiction is an obvious story, exploring the worlds of the futuristic, spacey textures and spherical influences.  Along with that story are some harder to figure out pieces of the puzzle, with non-descriptive tracks like Moscow and tracks named after specific drone styles in Thomas' mind (Haunted Drone, Carnival Drone.)  As such, Science Fiction shouldn't be looked at as a linear conceptual story, but rather a collection of short aural non-verbal essays.

Science Fiction starts off as simple on a droning scale as any Mystified release could be expected, but quickly grabs your attention with a dancey, flanging beat.  A gentle spherical hum underneath waves of breathing flow underneath this beat the whole time, which rises and drops like a tide, meeting its climax and end consecutively but consistently in time with the music.  A minimal bass line enters shortly after adding slightly more texture to the music.  This funky little groove sets the tone for Science Fiction, though its' fun nature may mislead the listener on what's about to come as a beat like this will only come again on one track.  Haunted Drone will bring about the usual Mystified nature, spherical drones fluctuating with light static to create an aura of both solitude and cosmic melancholy.  The track glows with the shadows of ghostly planets, uninhabited by life yet existing all the same, the very fabric and definition of consciousness being ripped at the seems by human realizations.  Ghostly radiowaves being transmitted by pulsars and unknown sources, creating monstrously giant spherical interludes, a cosmic symphony, floating in the void.  The desolation gives way to Deep Freq, which takes on an even more minimal approach, floating deep into the vacuum without even the cold face of planets to bring about the warmth of at least being near matter.  That lonely nature however is cut quickly by the approaching madness and static in the mind of the listener.  A high-piched drone brings about subtle harsh frequencies and voices that tempt the spaceman into suicidal revelations. 

Science Fiction will go on to take on different faces, the reprising rhythms of Moscow, the percussive statis and teaming drone flickering of the title track Science Fiction, and the epic ending of Sustain all play vital roles in the story of this release, but we'd be criminal to spell it out and suggest a story for you to follow.  Science Fiction is designed to be a personal experience for every listener, a quality that Thomas Park has long perfected.  Science Fiction comes relatively simply packaged, being a minimal as Mr. Park's style but at the same time holding onto the playful nature of the theme and his sparse dance-oriented beats.  The outer artwork of the booklet contains the track listing and label information on the back along with a  wrap-around image of a machine eye or camera lens.  The inside contains a semi-trippy red-scale two-page image of a spaceman walking through a lighted tunnel at the seam as well as the website information on Mystified.  As said before, not the world's most innovative release in recent memory, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.