{"id":2784,"date":"2016-09-12T21:14:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T21:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hausumountain.com\/?page_id=2784"},"modified":"2017-08-30T23:23:22","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T23:23:22","slug":"mukqs-walkthrough","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hausumountain.com\/?page_id=2784","title":{"rendered":"Mukqs – Walkthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HAUSMO49<\/a><\/h5>\n

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Purchase the cassette in our e-shoppe!<\/a><\/h5>\n

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Coming out on 10\/14\/16. C41 – blue shell with black imprints. Pro-dubbed chrome + cassette. 2-sided 3-panel J-card with artwork from Max Allison.<\/h5>\n

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Under the Mukqs<\/strong> moniker, Max Allison<\/strong> has released solo experiments that take his tactics of tape-loop mangling and sample manipulation honed in the trio Good Willsmith<\/strong> to new heights of noise collage abstraction.\u00a0Walkthrough<\/strong><\/em>, his first full length release on Hausu Mountain<\/strong> (following a split release with fellow HausMo co-founder MrDougDoug<\/strong> in 2013) represents another complementary branch of his work: layered synth compositions performed on hardware electronics, inspired by the tones of classic video game music. Recorded live as a single session presented without overdubs,\u00a0Walkthrough<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0finds Allison winding through a song cycle of day-glo square-wave leads, busy electronic percussion patterns, and washes of low-end drone. Mukqs<\/strong> meshes the emotionally resonant melodies and synthetic timbres of the soundtracks to Super Nintendo<\/strong> RPGs like Chrono Trigger<\/strong><\/em> or Earthbound<\/strong><\/em> with the strain of organic synth exploration practiced by the likes of Cluster<\/strong> or Emeralds<\/strong>. The equipment Allison used for this session embodies the fusion of these disciplines: a Korg Electribe EMX-1’s monophonic chirps and drum machine thumps, coupled with a cassette tape deck playing back an arrhythmic backdrop of synth swells and looped samples.<\/h5>\n

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For Mukqs<\/strong> and many musicians of his generation, video game soundtracks served as a formative entry point to electronic music at a young age. On more than the level of nostalgia, the genre offers transportive listening experiences rooted in the sheer enjoyment of fine-crafted melodies, cybernetic tonal palettes, and breakneck compositional structures coded with the DNA of Yellow Magic Orchestra<\/strong>, Kraftwerk<\/strong>, and Lee Scratch Perry<\/strong>. Mukqs<\/strong> transplants these tenets into the shell of an ambient synth album cobbled together from dozens of stacked and looped layers of input. “20 Nuyen” juxtaposes the manic intensity of a Mega Man<\/strong><\/em> boss battle with the chimes and music-box like tones of a new age meditation. “V on Shenton” fills the stereo spread with a dense oscillator drone, packing on additional blips and coin-like sound effects on the way to an impassioned orchestral climax of preset string tones. On “Fisherman’s Edit,” Mukqs<\/strong> warps the chord progression of a Nobuo Uematsu<\/strong> game composition into the template for a sentimental synth denouement, frosted with swirls of arrhythmic tape-loop bleeps sourced from an old-school Game Boy Camera<\/strong>. Instead of merely bridging the gap between Mukqs<\/strong>‘s musical upbringing and his current experimental practice,\u00a0Walkthrough<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0reveals that no such gap exists.<\/h5>\n

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