Mudboy — Night Eyes

Night Eyes is the tenth full length album by the reclusive mudboy, and his first in seven years. A key member of the early 2000's free-folk and experimental music scene coming out of Providence, Rhode Island, mudboy is largely identified with modified analog electronic keyboards and a live shows featuring shamanistic performances and DIY pyrotechnics.

For Night Eyes, Mudboy converted a massive pipe organ in Dortmund, Germany, into an electro-acoustic instrument, at its time, the largest of its kind in the world. The subject of the musical composition is Wes Craven's 1984 film: A Nightmare on Elm Street and features key motifs and elements from that soundtrack. With Peter Schutte (Psychobuildings, Silk Flowers) at his side, mudboy tries to takes you through a dreamscape of horrific liminal states and uncanny motifs.

This four track album (two tracks per side) is an eerie and enveloping album. Each track untitled, there’s a huge sense of foreboding and the feeling of the unnatural at almost every point. Side A, Track One begins with the short breathes and almost cicada like ticking that quickly becomes the sounds of the aforementioned pipe organ just after the breathe stops. there’s little movement, but the slow, tense, footsteps of apprehension and fear as sampled voices (from the film) echo across the foreground. Track Two is notably lighter. A Heavy bass drone is the foundation for the high end whistlings and corkscrew-like windings that take the centre stage, it’s not quite got the atmosphere s of track one, but then no horror film soundtrack should be all out all of the time. My main issue is the similarity (albeit slower in tempo) to Ravels “Song #7” in the whistles!

Side B, Track One, a seven minute is distorted Pipe Organ...a more unnatural pairing I’m unlikely to think of, and I’m not sure it works. With the wailing female vocals in the backgrounds this cacophony is neither scary nor eerie, it’s just annoying. And finally, Side Two Track Two. This changes to the more natural sounds of the organ, and in this there is a beautifully lilting refrain that, again is neither scary nor eerie. It’s beautiful, but is it fulfilling the manifesto as laid down? No, it’s not.

Taking aside the Nightmare On Elm Street motif, this is an interesting if mis-matched album, that I don’t think does Mudboy justice. The first track on Side 2 really doesn’t fit with the rest of the album, and as it’s only a four track album that doesn’t really help you forget it before the whole album is over.