Various Artists – Doom Mix Vol. 1

Artists: various
Title : Doom Mix Vol. 1
Keywords: electronic rock dream pop electronic experimentalindie rock kraut psychedelic synth United States
Label : Doom Trip records
Link : https://doomtrip.bandcamp.com/album/doom-mix-vol-i
Release date : April 2017
Format : Digital download / Tape
Reviewer: Wayne Rex

Well hello there, YIKIS readers.. Have you missed me? No??! To be honest, I can’t blame you but, whilst I have been away, I have missed some awesome music to attempt to review in my usual idiotic, slightly backwards manner. Luckily enough, I have found an absolute stonker to share with all you lovely people out there.

Doom Mix Vol.1 is an epic compilation, brought to you from the absolutely lovely folk from Doom Trip Records over there in the good ole US of A. They have released some superb music over the last year or so, from the band of the moment Skyjelly to the should be more famous, R. Stevie Moore and this is showcasing some serious talent.. and may I be so bold to say that none of this is in the slightest doomy. It’s uplifting, rejoiceful, gorgeousness that is true and proper music made by people who do it because they have to, because it’s in them. From the heart, the soul and not so they can just be famous. Though pretty much everybody featured on here deserves the upmost success. So join me in raising my mug of coffee to the featured artists featured on this compilation. (I think I may have already drank too much coffee but that’s just between you and I, ok?)

Kicking things off in a most summery and joyous manner we have HOTT MT with a night in Chinatown. If anyone out there reading this can tell me why this shouldn’t be a number 1 hit song for the summer then t please do and I will just play you the track again until you agree that this is fan-bloody-tastic!!!! High production value, sublime and haunting vocal, catchy melody and guitar hook. For the love of the baby Jesus, this has everything. I don’t even need to attempt to type, just listen for yourselves and you will know what I mean.

TALsounds is up next with a moody, atmospheric little number called touch the sky. Has echoes of Portishead in the vocal and also an authentic 80’s electro/Gaelic vibe to it. I’m really digging this. It’s arty without being pretentious. Has reflections of past era music without being sickly retro. Pagan synth pop, yo!

Rangers are up next with a short but amazingly funky and rocking track entitled Crown Prince. You need this song in your life before a night out or before a major nerve racking event as this song will pump your adrenalin to enable you to face the world and tear it a new one.

Tea, the drink by Skyjelly is next on the playlist. Sampled and produced nervous breakdown crossed with some modern say surf style vocal and laid back but funky as fuck drumming, finished off with country sci-fi guitar! Think I shall play this one again for good measure.

The man, the legend, Mr. R. Stevie Moore comes in at track 5. The Garbage State is just superb!! Garage, punk, country, blues.. it’s all going on but with such simplicity and aggressive beauty. Fuck bands like the sex pistols and other such bell-ends, to me this is how a punk song should be sung and moreover sung by a true pioneer and not fake as the piercings they sport. Lo-Fi greatness in 3min 48secs.

Heejin Jang with Introspection is a gloriously wacky soundscape/noise piece. Conjures up in my brain, Extra Terrestrials trying to tune in with our media that we’re all suffocated by and then having a conversation about how it’s probably best not to invade as we’re pretty much fucked already. Really well crafted piece of music, sound and art.

Next up are Missing Organs with Immortan Disco. This is another darkly playful piece, using synths and drum machines etc.. with a distinct feel from the 80’s but doesn’t sound at all nostalgic or old. It’s a track from the here and now and like all the tracks featured, completely timeless and could be played in fifty years and still sound fresh. This is like a pagan synth overture. Awesome!!

Vinyl Williams hits us up next with some summery pop magic entitled Ode to Eternal. Man, this is a quality piece of pop music. Again this track has such commercial appeal it’s really hard to try and understand why bands like this aren’t selling millions of records and scoring summer smash hits. I will certainly be blaring this one out as I crooze my hood (English Village) in my Suzuki Alto 1.1. That image may sound rather sad and pathetic but playing this track will instantly turn me into the dude.

Unbloom is next on the listening juggernaut that is Doom Mix Vol.1 and I’m instantly taken back to my youth with this one. Depeche mode, the cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees etc.. my hair (yes, I too once had hair) long and my clothes dark.. Oh, how I miss those times but now I’ve heard Sink into Skin I am taken back to those times. This is another brilliant track with so much commercial appeal that it should be at least on a film soundtrack and a high rising chart climber. Beautiful and dreamy vocals, dark but sympathetic (or should I say synthpathetic.. see, my jokes are worse than my writing) and a great tune you genuinely want to listen to over and over again. A band to watch out for.

Tarkamt with Outer Gateways is the next track. I really enjoy this kind of music. Electronic, experimentation, imaginative, quality simple beats, soundtrack guitars and all topped off with some feedback/noise guitar. Man I dig this track!!!

Wow, oh wow!!!!! What the fuck has just been put on?? It’s Alan Morse Davis with Indigo Carmine. I could literally listen to this track on repeat. European/Asian layered gospel vocal is like the most sensitive hands massaging the most tender of aches followed by the most dream inspiring joint of weed being smoked and then fall asleep together, naked in each others arms whilst the rain outside gently hits the window pains but the sun will rise in the morning. That is absolutely not doing this song justice to it’s awe inspiring beauty. Listen for yourselves and make your own meditative journey.

SCRTS is up next with a sonic soundscape piece called Tails Tied Together. Sci-fi, 2000AD shit going on here. Ambient but sinister. It’s dark, it’s Berlin is a Dystopian world. That’s the picture that I have painted from the wonderful music provided.

wrtch is next on the listening roller-coaster of awesomeness with a track called WEALTH. This could be the most accurate sonic description of how the mind of a wealthy capitalist with the morals of zilch and the decadence of depravity that knows no bounds. That could be taken as a negative for obvious reasons (from the artists point of view) but I mean it as a compliment as this is a mighty fine sonic journey and I need to listen again as I think my mind was just blown!

Parrallax ’48 with Phonetics is next. What an interesting song. To my simple ears it sounds like sampled human mouth noises, perfectly cut together to make a great beat with jazz qualities though obviously with different timings.. but you know what I mean. Then comes in some stunning piano. A soundscape of the sun rising over the plains and that moment when just for a split second, everything feels perfect in the world and your life. This track builds and builds with small and subtle additions to the music and noises and is just sublime. When I listen to this I actually feel like my soul has levitated out of my body and it’s just floating and staring at the world from a different and peaceful perspective. Bloody hell, this is good!!

We have Jeremy Bible with Extinction (Live) next on the hit list. The longest track on the recording, coming in at 8mins 20secs. The beginning could be out of a lost Floyd tape or something and instantly grabs your attention with it’s dramatic quality. This is followed but field recordings and sci-fi / futuristic noise and ambient background. I absolutely love this track. It’s something that not many people have heard before and totally unique. It’s intense but beautiful, dark but uplifting. it makes sense but is also totally bonkers. You just gotta love it.

The penultimate track is Later on (demo version) by Wooden Wand. What a beautiful acoustic track. It’s like a Brian Wilson song with an English guitar feel. Not sure if that makes sense but I know what I mean. Tender, thought provoking and spiritually relaxing. Time stands still when you listen to this track.

Mukqs with Bike Shop Instant Text Bug is the final track on what has been some of the best music I have heard all year. This is like south American / Mediterranean traditional music samples all mashed and mixed up with other strange, weird and wonderful sounds and noises to make by far the most far out track on the album. It’s like a Sega has been given bucket loads of speed and acid and is having the trip of it’s life and I have never in all my life wanted to be a Sega as much as I have now.

This is an epic compilation that really needs to be experienced first hand by you guys out there. It’s worth every penny of the download and I have heard that Doom Trip tapes are some of the best quality out there so invest wisely and invest in some of the best music of 2017!!
https://doomtrip.bandcamp.com/album/doom-mix-vol-i