MYSTIFIED-Cobweb Kingdom CDR

MYSTIFIED-Cobweb Kingdom CDR
PHAGE TAPES 2007
Mystified is one of those projects who have a million releases and because of that, you’ve heard the name tons of times but have never actually heard any of the projects material, though that could be an article all on its own. This disc consists of 10 tracks taking up 50 minutes. The track lengths are mostly around the 5 minute mark with a couple exceptions. It comes packaged in a black plastic case with a photo of a tree slipped into the transparent cover. The disc is silver/silver with noise band aid stick displaying the catalogue number. Mystified’s sound would be called drone. There are a lot of digitally processed static throughout all the tracks while some sort of ambient pads waver in the background.

On the 3rd track, entitled “Dry Water”, the sound of water droplets is added into the mix while the static and distant drones do their thing. The static in most of the tracks sound like they’ve been run through a flanger/chorus or similar effect. Though its not so obvious, you won’t hear any of those air plane sounds that flangers are notorious for. It creates more of constant backing slow and steady rhythm to get lost in and clear your mind. A similar formula is used in the majority of the tracks, the constant static receiving a different treatment. In the first track of this disc, “Shipwash”, the static is backed with a filterish sounding pulse while some super quiet mic work, sounding perhaps like a radio lost in between two stations.

Those static drones don’t appear in every tack however, “Kind Of Purple” is one of those tracks. The entire track consisted of a single wavering drone that alternates smoothly between various pitches. The 8th track, “Distant Alarms” is another example. This tracks mostly consists of two sound sources. One being a faint drone/pad oscillating in the background, the 2nd being an unmoving high pitched ringing. At first the ringing is very annoying but over time gains the same result as the static drones did in the other tracks on the disc, a numbing effect that allows you to notice some small changes in something that sounded unchanging at first.

The 2nd last track, “Horizon” perhaps treads a little too close “that flanger sound” not enough to ruin it for me. The track at first sounds pretty unchanging, though after you ears have had a chance to readjust, a deep bass drone can be heard singing in the background. Some of the tracks are almost ambient harsh walls if that makes sense. They have much the same effect. The last and title track is one of my favourites on this release. It sticks to the digitally processed static, rising and falling in a steady rhythm, little chips sound here and there, somewhat taking away from the engulfing effect. The track begins to speed up a little, how reverberated flanged static can speed up, I couldn’t tell you, but you feel it. While all this is happening a drone that almost sounds like a car on a race track, going around and around loops, very distant and faint.

A very peaceful soothing release, I could see myself listening to this when going to sleep (not an insult!) because of its encompassing numbing effect on the listener, drowning out all other thought until you are still, lost, and content.

By Jake Vida