TRACK REVIEW: Mysteries – Deckard
Courtesy of Nikhil Kanukuntla
★★★★
Mysteries are a band that have no time for the niceties of being identifiable. What one can assume, given their press photo, is that they are an all male three piece; seemingly fit to wear white, surgical gloves and pose mid probing. The term ‘press’ is used lightly, even their record label claim to know nothing about their origins and their Facebook page – at the time of writing -has only been updated four times since its conception in 2011. A bizarre YouTube video released on the 27th June shows 49 seconds of freakish superposition of faces, sliced with snippets of random images of an occult theme and moreover sound-tracked by songs from their upcoming album. What’s clear is that the only authorial intent Mysteries have is for you to focus solely on the music, championing the idea that the design or background of the artist need neither be available nor desirable. Essentially, everything else apart from the music is a gimmick.
However, the vagueness of the band adds a certain allure to their music, and is ironically made up for by their crisp and immaculate sound. It is a neo-perfectionist’s version of precision math rock, plainly impregnated with German “Kosmische Musik”. It does have a certain psychotically controlled streak coursing through it. It’s driven, perhaps by a German Engine. The binder of the song is, as one would expect of a band like this, the synthesizers. Here they pronounce a warbled sound, supple like chamois; what one would expect an arcade game machine to sound like underwater. The drums are consistently calculated and the vocals keep everything curled in a tightly coiled spring – something perhaps found in an eccentric, mechanical razorblade.
If one tries particularly hard to figure out the context of this song, they may grasp the pop culture reference of its title. ‘Deckard’ is the protagonist of the famous Phillip K. Dick Sci-Fi novel; but more importantly in this case, the lead in the cult classic film Blade Runner of which it is based on. And indeed, this is a song that could fit quite aptly in Ridley Scott’s smoke-rammed, post-apocalyptic vision, snuggling well with the beautiful Vangelis soundtrack that supported it.
Of course with lyrics like “are these not years hovering” and “sit and programmed for no one“, one can’t help but coax the idea. The thematic resemblances are remarkable. “Knowing that you control me, and I still want you” is the classic femme fatale-agony hook. Whoever it’s aimed to, it’s an enlightened, almost post-modern lust – an idea helped on by the sparse sound, eviscerated of anything that sounds ‘present’.
New Age Music it may not be, but like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Mysteries sound like they’re only looking to the future. In both ways.
Mysteries´debut album ‘New Age Music is Here’ will be released October 28th, 2014 on felte.
