Review: Mute City – Wooden Sword

Words: Electric Djinn

Music for desert drives…

A good indicator for me that I like music is if I would take a long drive and not feel annoyed listening to it.
This is how Mute City’s new album Wooden Sword is for me, A long Lynchian, desert drive with a kind of retro-futuristic music playing in the cassette player.

The first few notes from Stress Cadet brought to mind BMSR (Black Moth Super Rainbow) and the percussion, textures, and glitches reminiscent of Matmos playing on Bjork’s “Vespertine” album all sonic intrigue. Each song flows effortlessly into the next adding to the fantasy of long drives with the sun hanging low glinting off the side mirror of some future past automobile not yet in existence.

The tracks sail effortlessly through the atmosphere of my imagination creating a dreamy soundtrack but retaining an edge. There is so much history of electronic music that is brought to mind too much to mention but I’ll throw in a little nod to Tangerine Dream.

Just when I’m completely in a semi-conscious state a little audio nugget will perk my ears up, then back down we go again as the tones wash over me taking me into that mysterious floating state. One such nugget comes in the track “An Obsidian Obelisk” gently but noticeably nudging the vibe at the perfect moment and again, I’m back in the act of deep listening. Overall I liken it to one long song with peaks and valleys and the occasional side road leading to an unknowable destination and that’s perfectly fine by me.