Electric Mystical Soul Vibration

Electric Mystical Soul Vibration is a synth-and-vocoder-driven band from the U.K. which combines electronica, psychedelic rock, and prog rock into hypnotic, utterly bizarre little tunes. Formed by Tony Tooke, the band's first album is the "mostly improvised" Soundscape of a Modern Myth. Given how densely layered each of the twelve tracks on the album is, "improv" is hardly the word which springs to mind when listening to it; clearly these are tracks treated with much labor and love. All of it blends together into a concept album of immense--and inscrutable--proportions, although images from Tron drift through my mind while listening to it. And while the beats hop, there's something strangely relaxing to the album: you can drift off and dream in pulsating colors to these swirling, compelling pieces. The lyrics are minimal, and in many ways the album fits into the brief fad of lyric-free instrumentalist indie bands of the late 90's, like Japancakes, though the band promises to forge new paths of its own, if the new songs on EMSV's MySpace page are any indication. Here's a track from Soundscape of a Modern Myth, now being released in limited quantities by the fledgling (and very promising) Royal Rhino Flying Records.

Electric Mystical Soul Vibration - Stereo Fish and the Mantra Ray