When I first signed up for the Aquarius Records e-mail list, I had no idea that the mailings the sent every other week chronicling new arrivals would become such a huge part of my life. When it comes to the discovery of new music, AQ is the first, and sometimes only place I browse, listen to sound samples, and inevitably decide whether or not something is worth purchasing. Without those e-mails I wouldn’t be hip to as much as 75% or more of the music I listen to these days. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with new releases on labels like Mississippi Records, and I wouldn’t have bands and labels unearthed as frequently as they area when the one place I look for new music is regularly and thoroughly updated.
I first heard about the Mystery Sea label via a review for their fourth release, 2003’s At The Fountain Of Thirst, recorded by Aidan Baker. From that moment on I decided that I loved the concept behind the label and I needed to hear and own everything they released. The label defines itself as “a small-scale independent exploring unit devoted to limited edition works of 100 copies in CD-r format only…a vehicle for revealing highly immersive music, soundmantras making us connect with our innermost selves & get in touch with an evanescent reality far beyond words…” The most common phrase bandied about on their website is “night-ocean drones.” Are you following so far? Are you as interested as I was when first I learned that such a label exists?
The first Mystery Sea release is an original collaboration between Birds Of Tin (Brooke Oates) and Ene (Scott Hudgins). The original press release noted that, “they map out an haunted wandering into ever changing regions of calm looped tones with sporadic bursts of counterpoint abrasive elements… A slow flow of sounds mysteriously progressing an mutating with an hallucinatory effect…intuitive dark drones infused with half-remembered memories sketching an opiated path to an interzone between our innermost Self & natural phenomena…a psychogeographic metamorphosis.”
Hell yes. You have been warned. I’ll try to post all the ones I have over the next few months without boring you to death, but here is the very first, MS01. Enjoy.
Birds Of Tin : Ene
Key Ray
Mystery Sea, 2001
MediaFire DL Link
01. Key Nell
02. Open Doors
03. Paper Lock
04. Clear Passage Through
05. Thin Walls
06. Entry
07. Endless Empty
08. Key Ray
