MYSTIC 100’s – On A Micro Diet (2023, 2LP Listening House)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Listening House

Format: 2LP, Album, Limited Edition

Release Date: 31 Mar 2023

There used to be an underground group from Olympia, Washington called Milk Music. They released 2 albums, “Cruise Your Illusion” (2013) and “Mystic 100’s” (2017). Since then, a lot of things changed, the band became a sextet and they re-baptized taking the title of their 2017 album (there’s also a track in there called “Mystic 100’s”). So, under the Mystic 100’s moniker, the current line-up features Alex Coxen (guitar vocals), Dave Harris (guitar), Charles Waring (bass), Abby Dahlquist (piano/synthesizer), Joe Rutter & Travis Coster (percussion). Mystic 100’s just released a double LP album entitled “On A Micro Diet” through Listening House record label which I believe is somehow related to the band since this is the label’s first release! Anyhow… Their Bandcamp page states: “At 75 minutes, “Micro Diet” is a lofty collection of music. Inspired by frequent LSD use, the record features a wide range of musical styles that might all fit under the umbrella terms of “groovy’’ and “out there”, constantly shifting between stretches of coherent rhythmic groove and structural collapse”… “On A Micro Diet” consists of just 9 tracks, divided into the four sides of the album and let’s have a closer look/listen to this Lysergic Acid Diethylamide milky music… The album opens with the self-titled “On A Micro Diet”, and by the very first second the listener transports into a lysergically trippy electric psychedelic colorful soundscape, becoming bluesy at times, and makes you wonder if someone sprayed the atmosphere with LSD, if you dare to close your eyes, then through a colorful mindfield you will find yourself in the middle of a jam session, late at night, at the Fillmore stage (the West one, of course!), trying to figure out if this is Cipollina and his band playing there, or maybe Garcia and his gang… This is a glorious escape from Reality, this is West Coast late 60s electric Hippie Jam Music at its Best! “Message From Lonnie” is a slower tune, even more trippy, kind of sentimental with a huge Buffalo Springfield/Neil Young influence all over the track! This is a bewildering and kind of mystifying beautiful electrical Hippie-Psych ballad! Mindblowing Trip-a-Delia with the incredible lyric “Jerry Garcia is a Dead dear friend of mine”… Side ‘B’ starts in a kind of Bluesy way with “Drug Man”, a track that also flirts with jazz just before it transforms into a mesmerizing adventurous piece of old-school Hippie-Psychedelia with some weird vocalisms and a theatrical groove all over, it’s 60s inspired Psychedelia of the modern world, an ecstatic LSD Trip… The next one is called “Windopane”, Neil Young’s Crazy Horse meets Paisley Underground! What a killer combination! A track full of greatness… enough said… Side ‘B’ closes with “Two Souls Dance”… The sun is shining… A new dawn is coming ahead… And I’m feeling GROOVY! A groovylicious upbeat tune that – if anything – makes you wanna dance, free from any worries… “Have You Ever Chased A Lightbeam?” opens side ‘C’ and this is not a “micro dose”, this is a “macro dose”! Of LSD, of course!!! Mystical, magical, Trippy, extra Hallucinogenic, Improvisational Jam music, electric guitar based with some David Gilmour “complexion”, it’s an adventurous composition that sets the scene right there… At the famous Hashbury crossroad, though I must admit that towards the end there’s a mid-70s Floyd feel that gets stronger and stronger, and that is not bad at all! Side ‘C’ closes with the short (kind of outro) “On A Micro Diet II”, 57 seconds of pure electrical Freak-Psychedelia! The opener of side ‘D’ is called “Food For The Boogieman”, a quite hazy and experimental track that is built on some trippy n’ electric backward sounds, an “out there” tune that makes you wonder if Ken Kesey is somewhere there recording this during an Acid Test Graduation… Fook me! My Head is reeling… Eventually, the album comes to an end with some sweet old Hippie music entitled “First Day Of Peace (Short Version)”, improvised, jammy music, guitar-based, rhythmic, and groovy with some kind of an endless escalation… In conclusion… “On A Micro Diet” is an album soaked into LSD. “On A Micro Diet” is one of these ‘damn’ albums that make the use of drugs useless! One of the best releases of 1969…Opss…Sorry… 2023… TimeLord Michalis

Tracklist

Listen/Buy through MYSTIC 100’S Bandcamp