Cassette Review: Mysterious Clouds "Vibrations Shake the Path" (Haymaker Records)

[$5 // Edition of 50 // https://mysteriousclouds.bandcamp.com/album/vibrations-shake-the-path]

To me, all clouds are mysterious but I did grow up with two sisters so I watched a lot of Care Bears and as such believe there could be things going on up there that we don't quite know about.    I just like clouds as well because they can form all sorts of strange and different shapes and patterns, so as to leave room for your own personal interpretation much like music can do as well.

These songs begin as what I can only describe as electronic rock.   There are moments where it feels like it could be part of some -gaze and I want to call it electrogaze.   It's some sort of combination of Pink Floyd and Muse, though neither are really fair comparisons of just how good this actually is.    Through the psych haze comes some Doors sort of keys and then also big, rock n roll distorted guitar riffs.    Clanky guitars accompany whooshes and the only band I can think of this as sounding like right now is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club but that's not even really fair to Mysterious Clouds.   Side A ends with elements of being space trippy which is a nice set up for the next half.

Side B is one long song and it does feel as such, but it's such a trip.   It's instrumental and begins with what I call the jungle grind.   Frequency changes become trippy and then there are some funky bass lines as well.    I'm not really into "jam bands" and this doesn't have that kind of feel to it but it does seem somewhat like this band just decided to go into the studio (or wherever) and just play.    This might be planned out to some extent, sure, but it just feels like one long improvisation and I respect that about it.

This is such an interesting cassette for me because Side A has the somewhat typical song structure style and then Side B just throws all of those rules out of the window.    Side A gives you enough to decide whether or not to like it, and I've written things before to the effect of the different sides being beneficial for the idea that then Side B isn't just "more of the same".    But in this case, I feel like having more of the traditional style songs on Side B wouldn't have been a bad move because it could have helped us gain some more perspective into the overall sound.   Yet, not knowing such things just leaves me wanting more and often times that is the best feeling to have after listening to music.