Toronto producer Nyles Miszczyk's years of work as a recording engineer for other artists informs the presentation and overall flow of
Thyrsis of Etna, his debut album as Miszczyk and essentially a showcase of guest vocalists stepping into the booth to add their talents to the producer's hypnotic and personality-rich instrumentals. Across the course of 16 brief songs (only one breaks the three-minute mark), cosmically dusted arrangements of eerie synths, tight live drums, and all other sorts of spaced-out sounds are graced by a different vocalist on every track. This can be as familiar and pop-friendly as when
Stereolab's
Laetitia Sadier lends her icy croon to album opener and
Stereolab-indebted arrangement "In the Dark," and as free-floating as the randomized electronics and disconnected woodwinds on the Corey Hernden-sung "On Zuma Beach." The album can swing so wildly from song to song that the abrupt gear shifts start to feel like part of the presentation. Nigerian rapper
NAI rhymes over "Runaway, I Age," and seconds later
Pylon's Vanessa Briscoe Hay takes the lead on the percolating dub groove of "The Garden." All the songs feel cut from the same cloth, however, with Miszczyk's experimental touch making all the synths, reverb-doused percussion hits, and spaced-out atmospheres bring his guests deeper into his mysterious sound world rather than play to their particular individual styles. Even with the compilation-like format of a new voice on every song and unexpected left turns of style and sound,
Thyrsis of Etna quickly becomes a singular world of its own, guided by Miszczyk's spacious production and the environment it creates for his collaborators to take chances with their performances. There are moments of space age pop, lost singer/songwriter tracks from alternate galaxies, as well as hints of hip-hop swagger in moments like the shuffling,
Bile Sister-featuring tune "The Ecstatic Dance." By the time cult favorite
the Space Lady shows up to deliver "End Credits,"
Thyrsis of Etna has played out like an intergalactic mixtape, with Miszczyk steering his friends and collaborators to strange new places. ~ Fred Thomas