Genre: Ambient/Drone
 
Track listing:

01 Bending
02 Polymorph
03 Grinder Bells
04 Uneasy Dreams
05 Frosted Tundra
06 Frigid Radiance
07 Chimedrops


I am at some sort of crossroads here. This album had a strange effect on my opinions about one of the most misunderstood genres of all time: DRONE. Sure, "Frigid Radiance" sounds good, but a work with things like attention to detail and depth like this one made me ask myself an important question: Why? Why is it that this genre exists? Is it because people have no qualms about pressing down a key for seven minutes and calling it art? Is it that the format of extreme minimalism allows for maximum delivery of a message, even if the message is only conveyed through the title of a track? And why don't people have a problem putting out all these "wind tracks" over and over not wanting to admit that its the same stupid sound? I do not expect any justification, but I just thought asking a couple of things might be a different way to credit Thomas Jackson Park with some nice work.

The key thing to remember when considering this album is that this guy is NOT a Drone artist. He is simply an artist. Mystified would not be where it is and would not be recognized by both the underground and even folks like SPIN magazine alike if the project would be a series of tracks only existing as lip service to a style of music that could not be more simple, yet at the same time, more dismissed...

"Frigid Radiance" is not too far a step away from all other Mystified releases at its core, because in a way, the album gives you THE CORE of what Mystified is all about. While albums aside from this one feature simple but stylish percussion, much in the Meat Beat Manifesto style, and others a reinterpretation of iconoclastic sound in film [Mr. Park's tribute to Forbidden Planet], This one is sound in itself. It's still drone, but the drones are meticulous, highly detailed, and substantial.

I consider this work to be the soul of Mystified. I think this was not Drone for its own sake, but a man saying in his own way, "This is the center of my art. From here, I can take you anywhere", but we know that artists in this scene are far more existential. This isn't a start, it's a space all its own.