Mukqs – 起き上がり
1.31.18 by Ryan Masteller

Mukqswell Allison is no stranger to the Doom Trip roster, having appeared on the spectacular (if I do say so myself) “Doom Mix Vol. 1” way back in seventeen. The erstwhile Good Willsmith–smith returns from whence he came, like a dove to the ocean, with 起き上がり, or “To Get Up,” which some of us relate to and some of us don’t, depending on how tired we are after an all-night bender. (I’m of the early bird variety, non-all-night-bender edition.) Mukqs is up with sun, ready for the day, because he’s a really, really industrious fellow. He may not even have gone to bed the night before, to be honest. I don’t know for sure.

Not changing up the electronic improvisational approach one bit, because that’s what makes the fat stacks of cash roll in, Mukqs breathes his usual exotic life into his soundworlds, crafting something between Castlevania drama and the Hyrule nightlife scene, with of course a little bit of desert-world Mario for good measure. Yes, 起き上がりis a nostalgic pleasure cruise, but with the danger and excitement of a midnight buffet on that pleasure cruise, where you’re not really sure if the custard has curdled or the shrimp have turned yet. But maybe they have, and that’s OK – Mukqs’s style renders the cold remove of electronic music humid and vaporous, and food goes bad pretty quickly in its presence.

As we return on the waves of the dawn, our dreams fading, shouting “We’re up, we’re up!” to our irate mothers and even to Mukqs himself, who of course is quietly tut-tutting in our direction while sipping his third cup of coffee, we are blessed with the weird pulses greeting us from our tape recorder, content in the knowledge that once again, Mr. Maximilian Allison has safely and courageously saved us singlehandedly from a life of boredom. He may also inspire you, too, little ad-libber – I myself once did the improv live-no-overdubs thing with an electric guitar, a practice amp, and a distortion pedal. (I called it “Brachiosaurus,” which would have met the approval of my six-year-old son.) Sadly, no tapes of it exist to this day. Point is, get out of bed and get busy making something! It might be cool.

It might be worth making 125 tapes of. And whaddya know, 125 are tapes available from old Doom Trip. Wait, still available? How have they not sold out already? What the Mukqs?! (OK, nobody says that, I admit it.)