Mr. Devil

Including only two tracks with vocals, this largely instrumental album builds a gritty, floating world out of interweaving, disembodied guitars. Huysmans offered a re-analysis of dust in La-Bas saying, "Dust isn't a bad thing. Besides having the taste of ancient biscuit and the smell of an old book, it is the floating velvet which softens hard surfaces, the fine dry wash which takes the garishness out of crude colour schemes." Medusa Cyclone similarly employs the grainy texture of slightly distorted guitars and machine effects. Blending together these roughened sounds with mysterious, ominous voices into a deliberate, plodding delivery produces a foreboding, sinister sound. It is easy to imagine the slow, abandoned tumble of a disabled spacecraft in deep space. Knowing Medusa Cyclone's Detroit origination and noting the CD booklet's photography, perhaps urban ruins and B-movie entertainment conjure this mood for Medusa Cyclone. "Mr. Devil" is a languidly diabolic take on psychedelic free rock, space rock from a gloomy planet. Occasionally, as on the three-guitar "Hypnosis Take," a glimmer of a hopeful melody struggles through the obsessively morose loops and rhythms. This lo-fi solo project of Viv Akauldren keyboardist Keir McDonald fits in well with Spacemen 3, the earliest of Pink Floyd, and Current 93.