Spectreview: Mt Fog – Guide to the Unknown

Released: July 2, 2021

Electronic
(Ambient)
(Synth Pop)

-DARK ORANGE-

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Something spellbinding lays at the crux of Guide to the Unusual, the debut album by enigmatic folktronica artist Mt Fog. Though each song is made up of the same parts – myriad synth textures layered under, and over, Carolyn B.’s unplaceable voice – and they tend to flow into each other without easy lines of demarcation, that flow turns into something strangely compelling, almost meditative. Supplanting traditional verse/chorus structures, all of these tracks are instead circuitous journeys around an idea or a thought, providing the same disorienting effect as if you were lost in the woods and passing the same trees repeatedly.

Not that there aren’t distinct highlights: “Blue Summer’s” featherweight construction and bright melody acts like a clear meadow in the record’s wild thicket – it was chosen as a single for a reason – while “Turn To Leaves” boats some killer harmonies on top of its dense swirling and “Dreams are Heavy” contrasts its title with chords that ascend gently like steam. But Guide to the Unusual works best as a complete experience, allowing each song to flow into another like some cartographic effort. Where that may lead is up to you; all I’ll add is that Carolyn adeptly pairs textures and sounds together to make that journey consistently intriguing, with a panacean voice that rises and falls in volume as if it were projected across a house of mirrors. The effect is a little akin to Spellling’s Mazy Fly, or a lusher, less-gothic version of Grimes’ Halfaxa: passingly eerie, strangely beautiful, quite worth a number of return trips.

Recommended for a glimpse of wings in the corner of your eye.