THE MYSTIFYING ORACLE

quintessence

Austere (2002)

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review by Bill Binkelman

While only a short twenty-six minutes long, quintessence (lower case intentional), a side project of one of the two members of the ambient/drone duo Austere (here recording as The Mystifying Oracle), is a satisfying trip into a land of shadowy washes of sound, dark drones and glitch beats. I have been a fan of Austere's music ever since I heard their CD Monodia. This album introduces kicky rhythms to their trademark evocative somber layers of multiple keyboards and drones. The mood is decidedly mysterious (hence, I would guess, the choice of The Mystifying Oracle as a pseudonym). Minor tonalities abound, and the beats, even when they are pronounced, somehow have a sorrowful or despairing feel to them.

While the album's inlay card of the CD lists seven (7) time cues on the EP, there are actually just three songs herein. The other four cues act more as intros or bridges between tracks, and, as such, are quite successful at maintaining an air of disquiet and foreboding.

The three "titled" songs are "sagacious gibber," "effervescence," and "laggard's swag." A reverberating metallic-chime like drone opens "sagacious gibber" and is soon joined by a layer of pulsing bass and assorted glitch ambient beats. As the track progresses, the drones are joined by undulating sonic washes, fleeting electronic textural effects, and more organic percussive textures (sounding like a variety of sampled hand drums). One might make an comparison to ethnic-tribal artists like o yuki conjugate or Tuu, except that the lack of flutes and traditional melodic sensibility places The Mystifying Oracle more in the realm of electronic ambient music than the ethno-tribal genre.

"effervescence" is arguably the best track on the EP - echoed/processed piano refrains are played on top of a bed of throbbing beats, accented by whooshing effects, glitch beats, and a scattering of struck-gong sounds, as well as a sensual sung/spoken-word female vocal (special note to non-vocal fans: the vocals here are used less as lyrics and more as adornment, so don't be put off by my mention of them; however, I do believe the actual words spoken/sung by the vocalist are relevant to the theme of the CD just the same, as are several dialogue samples throughout the course of the EP).

The bridge between the second and third track is eerie - it sounds like a dialogue sample from The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone! The track itself, "laggard's swag," is the moodiest piece on the recording - shadowy and shifting drones eventually incorporate cymbal and bass-drum rhythms that bring to mind deserted city streets at 3 am. The "swag" of the track title is elicited by the loping pace of the beats; the rhythms do have a pronounced "swagger" to them. Assorted subtle electronic effects (echoed radio zaps and synthetic burpings) add a second layer of texture to the already densely layered song.

One of the things I have always liked about Austere's recordings (and I would consider this to be one of them even though it features only one of the duo's members) is how evocative they are, yet when glimpsed with a clinical eye and dissected, it all apparently happens on a subtle or even microscopic level. My description of the music on quintessence is lacking in how subtly the music weaves its magic spell. This is not music that grabs your attention forcefully. Instead, it insinuates itself into your soul's fiber - planting seeds of vague disturbance and a disquieting feeling, much like noticing out of the corner of one's eye that a picture somewhere is not properly hung - it's off-kilter. This is not "dark" music, per se; it's, well, it's mystifying, and I recommend it highly to fans of rhythmic and glitch ambient.