Mystery Dungeons explore digital isolation, gendered rage and the Open World

 


Early last year Philly's Mystery Dungeons released a good, but short, "self-titled" EP I ended up going back to quite a bit. While personally not totally privy to the project's history, a quick glance at the statements attached to the EP and now the debut LP show connections to various artists and a bigger picture than what we can see on a BandCamp page. Regardless of where they've been, I'm interested in where they are now, and Open World is a pretty clear view. For a record with such a short run time this has a wide variation of sonics. What makes emo-chiptune such a fun genre is while you're aware of what you're going to get the difference in artists lays in their personality coming through. You do get this here; the OST influence is more tragic and introspective. What sets Mystery Dungeons in particular apart is a willingness to wear hearts on sleeves. None of these songs try very hard to be fun, some of them are, the first three tracks are a blast. None of them aim to get there, however, they do so naturally. There is a clear understanding of the genre in all its forms, from sad guitar twinkles to pop punk all the way up to more modern, hip-hop inspired emo. If you aren't prepared for how strong a writer there is behind this project the lyricism can really catch you off guard. The entire record is a meditation on self-isolation via digital idealism and how that as a lifestyle can very easily crash down around you. There is, of course, a lot of ruminating on gender itself, but it is less of gender as a subject of angst and more as a frustration of its workings and importance. "Hikikomori" in particular feels so angry with how we can feel we have failed transition but also how we can apply our own made-up rules to strangers. Humanize goes out on a bang; we can idealize forever until we miss out entirely.

I've changed up my approach, yet again, with approaching taking these records in. Lately I've been doing my "last" listen of an album with the lyrics open and I wonder how I hadn't been doing it up until this point. I can't really see what an artist is going for unless I see everything, they have chosen to show me and with Mystery Dungeons I was pleasantly surprised with what I had heard.

Support Mystery Dungeons
The AsterTracks Playlist on Spotify

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The BRAT review

Image
Oh my gosh, Claudia AsterTracks got a review out less than four months after the album is out! In all seriousness, I’ve been sitting on this review for a bit. It always feels weird to post long reviews about huge pop albums being an indie blog. Sometimes they’re just too long for MusicBoard though, so this one fit here. In spite of being gay, formerly terminally online and generally a fan of modern-day pop, I have actually never liked an entire Charli xcx project. I remember a very awkward conversation with an ex once after she found out I find it very hard to get to the end of even the twelve and a half minutes of Vroom Vroom. In spite of all of this I still want to stay current and know what albums are coming out, so I gave BRAT a try and I’m sort of blown away, I absolutely love this one. Something I noticed just minutes into BRAT is how the production is so bare and yet also feels so club ready . Opening track “360’ s ” beat is only about seven notes total with barely a drum...
Read more

Review: analysis/paralysis by Four Year Strong released via Pure Noise

Image
Four Year Strong is a band who has always meant a lot to me growing up in New England. While I Specifically spent my adolescence in RI, Worcester was only a forty-minute ride and most of the shows I attended were out there. I'm less online now, but I have a feeling I know the consensus on this record isn't very hot. Being an over twenty-year-old easycore band in a time where scene bands are nostalgic acts can't be easy. But to be honest I quite enjoyed this one. Analysis paralysis as a record has a lot harder an edge than 2020's Brain Pain . The hardcore elements were never really missing from the Four Year Strong formula, but on this record songs like "aftermath/afterthought" are actual moshable moments, complete with a full breakdown, a lot of intensity and a guitar pedal like a buzzsaw. A part of me wonders if a band like this needs to be put on an indie music blog. I know lately we've shied away from this, but there's talks behind the scenes to ...
Read more

REVIEW: UNKILLABLE ANGEL by Ada Rook released independently

Image
The Black Dresses split was and continues to be ugly. I never reviewed Laughingfish, the duo’s final record, mostly because I didn’t feel it was my place. While there were some strong tracks present, I felt the two’s strained relationship came through quite clearly and it wasn’t up to some music blogger to weigh in on it. Now Ada Rook has released Unkillable Angel , her first solo record since the split and she makes it hard to not weigh in on. When I heard about this record, I saw warning to stay away, citing Rook as being aggressive, toxic and confrontational, which if you’re attempting to read the record in bad faith I could definitely see. She also invites you to hate her on the album several times on both the tracks about this situation and the one’s written two years ago. Still, this didn’t scare me away, in fact I think Unkillable Angel gives us a deeper look into the situation than we’re led to believe. Rook's music has always been danceable with a sharp edge with her harsh...
Read more