HR101 - Mystery Hearsay - Ear Gear - C60 — 1989
Side A:
ANOTHER WHINER ON THE RHINE DECENT RECENT PERCENT |
Side B:
BEACONS HOME THE REOCCURENCE |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Mystery Hearsay is a solo project of Memphis based Mike Honeycutt. On his Ear Gear cassette album, Mike employs an arsenal of instruments/gear: Emulator II+, Yamaha DX7, Roland D550, Supiter Jupiter, Digital Effects Processor 5, ART Multi-Verb, and Kawai & Sound Craft Mixers. Wow!
From the beginning the music blends space-ambience, noise-scapes, metal/bell clatter, and wailing notes, though not always at once. There are sedate passages, segments where we’re rocking out, and weirded out spacey bits that combines clatterous rhythmic pulse and spooky atmospherics, which bring to mind a spacey industrial Residents Mark Of The Mole type theme. I like the part with damaged shamanic horn call surrounded by edgy ambience. There are feverish tornadic squalls that abruptly dissipate into whooshing mist. Psychedelic swirls morph into a fusion of mad scientist laboratory, metal percussion, and UFO oscillations. Intensity is constantly interweaving with ambient-industrial drift and the background sounds of a factory in production mode. There’s a lot happening throughout and feels like a story is being told. Lots of variety and constant change but it all flows nicely.
These themes are further developed on Side B. It opens with pleasant space-ambient drift, along with time warp effects. Lightly plinking notes, water/laser rushing waves, and searing drone waves paint a small alien ensemble performance picture in the spacecraft engine room, which soon morphs into layers of menacing drone rumbles, howls, buzzing radio static, and disorienting effects. Voice samples that sound alternately French and Italian add to the soundtrack feel of this journey. A fun space-ambient excursion with an industrial edge that is constantly twisting and turning in mood and intensity.
Mystery Hearsay is a solo project of Memphis based Mike Honeycutt. On his Ear Gear cassette album, Mike employs an arsenal of instruments/gear: Emulator II+, Yamaha DX7, Roland D550, Supiter Jupiter, Digital Effects Processor 5, ART Multi-Verb, and Kawai & Sound Craft Mixers. Wow!
From the beginning the music blends space-ambience, noise-scapes, metal/bell clatter, and wailing notes, though not always at once. There are sedate passages, segments where we’re rocking out, and weirded out spacey bits that combines clatterous rhythmic pulse and spooky atmospherics, which bring to mind a spacey industrial Residents Mark Of The Mole type theme. I like the part with damaged shamanic horn call surrounded by edgy ambience. There are feverish tornadic squalls that abruptly dissipate into whooshing mist. Psychedelic swirls morph into a fusion of mad scientist laboratory, metal percussion, and UFO oscillations. Intensity is constantly interweaving with ambient-industrial drift and the background sounds of a factory in production mode. There’s a lot happening throughout and feels like a story is being told. Lots of variety and constant change but it all flows nicely.
These themes are further developed on Side B. It opens with pleasant space-ambient drift, along with time warp effects. Lightly plinking notes, water/laser rushing waves, and searing drone waves paint a small alien ensemble performance picture in the spacecraft engine room, which soon morphs into layers of menacing drone rumbles, howls, buzzing radio static, and disorienting effects. Voice samples that sound alternately French and Italian add to the soundtrack feel of this journey. A fun space-ambient excursion with an industrial edge that is constantly twisting and turning in mood and intensity.