Wounded Knee - Mystic Mixtape
This psychedelic and schizophrenic outburst jumps from peak to trough unheeded and is quite unlike anything these ears have heard in, well, ever
Mystic Mixtape is a 38 minute a capella composition by Edinburgh based vocal alchemist and experimentalist Wounded Knee. The word ‘experimental’ is bandied about all too flippantly in reference to musical endeavours, but rarely has the adjective been so astutely used than here. The Mixtape consists of countless instances of one man’s voice, recorded and looped back over itself incessantly in varying levels of activity and to varying degrees of success. The opening and closing choral bursts, a la Ladysmith Black Mambazo, are meditative, soothing and harmonic - it’s what comes between that’s the peculiar bit. From Tarzan-like howls to beastly, cavernous growls – this psychedelic and schizophrenic outburst jumps from peak to trough unheeded and is quite unlike anything these ears have heard in… well, ever – meaning categorical success for an aspiring experimentalist. Alas, over half an hour of this is very hard work. It’s an experience for sure, but unfortunately not an entirely enjoyable one. [Finbarr Bermingham]