Mystified Music

Mystified “Escaping Physics” cdr released:

“It’s an album filled with hypnotic, brooding drones with ethereal, high-end tones pulsating throughout. (I personally found the album especially effective while listening to it, late at night, on the subway.) The release will be limited to 50 hand-numbered copies in what will most likely be SRA’s uniform ‘look’ with original artwork by Royce Lee on the cover.

Hand-made with the “SRA Look” in a limited edition of 50. $7 postage-paid: USA, $8 postage-paid: International.

You can paypal me at sentientrecognitionarchive@gmail.com, but please make sure you put what you’re buying in the subject and / or notes section of the paypal order.”

–Nicholas of SRA, 10/31/2007

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Thomas wishes everyone a Happy Halloween! He traditionally does not do much to celebrate, of late. . . few trick or treaters come by his apartment. But he has finished another cool project today, one he hopes people will get to hear, called “Science Fiction”– just under 50 minutes of drone material.

By the way, if you need spooky stuff and want some free music, Thomas composed some soundtrack work for Australian director Andrew Merklebach. It sounds a lot like music to a “B” Horror film, though maybe a little flashier. You can download the whole project here for free:

http://www.archive.org/details/enrmp082_mystified_-_traveller_soundtrack_selections

Thomas just received his artist copies of “Drifting”, very soon to be released through Cute Tapes. In fact, you can probably order one  already– check the discography link on the sidebar for contact information for Cute Tapes.

The release is excellent. The artwork is original by the folks at the label. It resembles a darker early Disney style, and is somehow perfect, including images of Frankenstein. As for the music, Thomas couldn’t be more pleased. “Drifting” has been a standout for him. It is a cold, droney, crackling set of pieces, right around 50 minutes, certain to absorb or sooth as is desired.

Don’t miss this C60 release! There will not be too too many available so it wouldn’t hurt to grab one sooner rather than later.

A new creepy, chilly drone track with beats is available at our Myspace page for streaming.

It’s called “Moscow”.

Check it out here:

http://www.myspace.com/mystified

“D-Program” is a 3″ cdr due out on Industrial Culture Records ( http://www.industrialculture.org/ ) in November 2007. The cdr will feature original glitch art by artist Mark Jondahl ( www.markjondahl.com ). Thomas is so happy with the image Mark provided that he decided to share a smaller version with you:

Mark uses a very original process to create his images, involving freeze-frames from video. Enjoy!

Thomas unabashedly listens to lots of Daniel Menche. Right now, “Animality”, the acoustic drum collage, is spinning in Thomas’ stereo.

Menche is the kind of artist mystified aspires to be more like– he exhibits a degree of seriousness about his music that is awesome, and, as a result, his cds are seriously trippy.

Mystified has noticed a love for similar sounds– drones, drum pulses, atmospheric noise. Styles of writing seem similar, as well– with staggered pastiches of gathered recordings. Thomas has tried but never come terribly close, however, to great releases like Menche’s “Field Of Skin” (Thomas’ favorite).

There is a slight gothic or dark tinge to some of Menche’s stuff that makes it a little less accessible, but generally it is just incredible, Thomas feels.

Even if you never listen to any mystified music,  don’t miss the music of Daniel Menche.

Thomas of mystified is lucky enough to own a dvd copy of “Star Wars” (A New Hope). Tonight was a perfect night for revisiting the movie. What fun!

There is a lot of inspiration to be drawn from George Lucas in the noise and drone genres– the passion for futuristic gadgetry, the “used universe” aesthetic, the cowboyish professionalism of his style. . .

Sometimes when other explanations fail, Thomas admits to following Lucas, but in a musical sense. Mystified tries to create “science fiction”– crackling, spooky, somehow unnatural drones, often in a large scale. The band emanates the Imperial ‘Cruiser, the Death Star, the Trash Compactor.

Given the analog sources for many of his sounds, Thomas identifies most with the original “Star Wars”, and does not admit to using the musical equivalent of CG.

May the Force be With You.

This is back from May, but a music critic / blogger at “FreeAlbums” did a nice writeup on mystified, with 12 quick album reviews and lots of links. The links all point to free releases, if you are interested.

http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2007/05/02/mystified-several-albums

As far as being “the best composer / musician” working in his genre, Thomas can only say that that made his night but he thinks that is one (nice) person’s opinion, and the genre must be pretty narrow.

You be the judge!

Thomas is listening to Ctephin’s side of the Ctephin / mystified split “4″. Really, this C60 has not gotten enough attention. Ctephin’s work is just fantastic– a 30-minute drone excursion into moods, textures and oscillations. Mystified’s side involves lots of drone and shortwave sounds, and is a continuous mix of several tracks.

The cassette is available on Brazil’s “No Lyrics Records”:

http://www.nolyricsrecords.com/

Thomas recommends all of the recent material on this label, including his own “Haunted” and Ctephin and BCO’s split, “Tierce”, as well as the EU works.

A review has been posted of the Roil Noise Records ( www.roilnoise.com ) Mystified versus Ghoul Detail split. Ian at Wonderful Wooden Reasons did a nice job describing the release. His love for Ghoul Detail shines, and mystified didn’t fare to badly, either. You can go here:

 http://www.wonderfulwoodenreasons.co.uk

The review is in the “Current” Issue as of 10/22/2007– Issue number 14 for future reference.

Thanks to Jon, Noah and Ian.