9.10.20 by Matty McPherson
Mystic Timbre is having a fire…sale. The label, which may have been best known for its dungeon synth, racked up an uber-prolific run of tapes from artists around the world in such a short time. Last month, MT decided to head into an indefinite hiatus, clearing inventory with $1 tapes until all stock is cleared. Tragic, as I was ready to make Mystic Timbre my Saturday night thing after having listened to two terrific tapes from artists on the label, one from Takahiro Mukai and the other from the Wyndham Research Institute.
The former, Mukai’s Fusty Stuffy is supposedly his big half-centennial release, which he celebrates in style by introducing 7 live improvisations on an unsuspecting tape deck near you! Side A sounds like a cascade of failed analogs, bludgeoning and sputtering out noise. Yet, whether or not the noise can be harnessed into a laser weapon or a power incantation is revealed on Side B. On #449 Mukai’s improvisations take on the lifeforce of a blood thirsty vulture, backed by a drum beat that sounds like a motor piston, on the (metaphorical) dance floor, while #453 features a cryptic, morse code-like transient noise burst. The result is at once, incredibly danceable and mind-expanding.
The latter (SOLD OUT), the Wyndham Research Institute’s Interim Report no. 57: lo Transmitter sub-committee, is a new series of clues from the mind of J.G. Sparkles, a “Sweedish noise orchestrator” (which is how 7.3% of Sweedes have been garnering a living for centuries). The “unclassified report” from the lo Transmitter sub-committee contain no words, only sounds-and these must be sounds of great scientific achievement, like a spaceship, if you ask me. Across the seven transmissions, Sparkles practically soundtracks standing at the bridge of a lone space vessel (Notes VI & VII), while still having enough time to document the inner workings of this ship’s warp speed drives and pulse emitters on abstract notes like II, III, and IV. The result is a treat for fans of hearing Black Mesa’s sirens wail ad nauseam, as well as those that still have dreams of radiophonic spaceships delivering us to territories unknown.
Yet these are only a fraction of the choices still available from the Mystic Timbre catalog of sounds. You’re still here eyeballing this instead of grabbing those tapes?!
GO GET “EM AND BUILD YOUR SONIC SPACE STATION!
Both from Mystic Timbre, Editions of 100
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