The Mystic Underground – Protagonist

the_mystic_underground_-_protagonist

'Unexpected comes often' …

.. is a German say­ing which means some­thing like "things always seem to hap­pen when you least expect them". And this pins it down for this album.

Usually we have a sense for it if and when an inter­est­ing record comes in for review. Then there are the ones we´d like to review, but don't even receive a promo on dir­ect request (espe­cially young­er acts should really overthink their mar­ket­ing strategies here!). In addi­tion, we daily receive pro­mo­tions, we won't review for very good reasons.

And then there are these few happy cases, when a band sends us their album for "listen­ing", without expect­ing any­thing. And if you are as pos­it­ively sur­prised, as we were with the present album of 'The Mystic Underground', it´s some­thing special.

Feels like a hidden secret uncovered

It's really a pity that I nev­er heard of the band before. This is already the third album in the dis­co­graphy of 'The Mystic Underground'. So I can't com­ment on the pre­de­cessors at the moment. The cur­rent album 'Protagonist', how­ever, is very appeal­ing to us. Stylistic par­agons are clearly greats like 'Depeche Mode', 'Pet Shop Boys' and oth­er 80s Synth Pop bands. However, these guys from New York have their very own unmis­tak­able style. I'm par­tic­u­larly impressed by and want to emphas­ize the sooth­ing and gentle voice of the singer.

the_mystic_underground_-_promo_picture_2016
The Mystic Underground – Promo photo 2016

'Let the music play'

The first seconds of the open­er 'Evelyn, You'll Be The Death Of Me' have cap­tiv­ated me. With the onset of the first vocals I was com­pletely seized and hoped for more such great songs. With the second song 'War Of The Roses' my hopes were more than sat­is­fied. This is a super catchy and clas­sic Synth Pop song that could write almost his­tory with the right air­time on radio. The bass­line is simple, but awe­somely groovy and is match­able to well-known Synth Pop hits in every way!

'In The Walking Hour' sounds bleak and at the same time gor­geously beau­ti­ful. If you like the early albums like 'Nightfall' or 'Truth' of 'Beborn Beton' then you surely will love this song. The sub­sequent song 'Laughter Turns To Tears' hits the same, mel­an­chol­ic score, fol­lowed by anoth­er poten­tial hit called 'Carry On, Young Men'. This song comes along with an extremely groovy hook and a sig­ni­fic­ant, mem­or­able chorus.

'Crash and burn you never learn' …

… is one of the lyr­ic­al lines that has burned itself into my mind after the first listen­ing of 'That's How Rumours Start'. This song has def­in­itely the qual­ity of a clas­sic 'Erasure' song and I strongly recom­mend you to listen in on this mas­ter­piece. To be hon­est, for 'A Future In Film', I have needed a few attempts, since it is a bit more multi-layered and com­plex than the oth­er songs. But once the knot is untangled, the song appears qual­it­at­ively no way inferi­or to the oth­er tracks.

Much more quietly and emo­tion­ally 'The Mystic Undground' present their song 'Here In My House'. Sonically it dif­fers to the rest of the album, but it sounds awe­somely unique. Brilliant lyr­ics are melted with slow, cold beats. The bells in the song 'Those Evil Urges' are remin­is­cents of a typ­ic­al 90s 'Pet Shop Boys'-track, and it´s just as catchy as that. Nevertheless the song reveals its very own char­ac­ter. BTW: We are proud to present 'Those Evil Urges' on the next Electrozombies com­pil­a­tion 'Undead And Open-Minded Vol.2'.

Closing words

What an awe­some 'Synth-Pop-tast­ic' album! Running a webz­ine like Electrozombies costs tons of spare time and quite some money, but these are the pre­cious moments when you've found an unex­pec­ted jew­el like 'Protagonist'. Out of the blue, we received an album that keeps us aston­ished. A long-play­er full of mar­velous Synth Pop tunes. Please sup­port these young Synth Pop her­oes by buy­ing the album 'Protagonist' now!

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2016‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

The Mystic Underground Protagonist
The Mystic Underground – Protagonist
Evelyn, You'll Be The Death Of Me
War Of The Roses
In The Waking Hour
Laughter Turns To Tears
Carry On, Young Men
That's How Rumours Start
A Future In Film
Here In My House
Those Evil Urges
Remember Me
Recommend
War Of The Roses
Carry On, Young Men
That's How Rumours Start
Weak
(Nothing to report here)
4.1
A bleak star

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Evelyn, You'll Be The Death Of Me
War Of The Roses
In The Waking Hour
Laughter Turns To Tears
Carry On, Young Men
That's How Rumours Start
A Future In Film
Here In My House
Those Evil Urges
Remember Me
Final Score