Mutual Hallucinations

Randy McStine

Independent release, 2024

http://www.randymcstine.com

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/23/2024

“Mutual Hallucinations is about how society has crossed the point to arrive where we’re
together and completely apart, simultaneously.
” – Randy McStine, Innerviews

When I first encountered Randy McStine back in 2010, he was a 22-year-old singing, songwriting, many-instrument-playing prodigy with a pair of instrumental guitar albums under his belt, who had just delivered an album of rather Floydian progressive rock under the moniker Lo-Fi Resistance. Nearly as noteworthy as the music itself was the fact that Spock’s Beard drummer/vocalist Nick D’Virgilio was so enamored of the material that his initial guest spot on one track evolved into playing on, and then mixing, the entire album.

The ensuing 14 years have been quite a journey for McStine. After two more outings as Lo-Fi Resistance, he began recording under his given name while engaging in parallel collaborations—first The Fringe, with D’Virgilio and Flower Kings bassist Jonas Reingold, and then McStine & Minnemann, with Aristocrats drummer-singer-composer Marco. In 2019 he was the opening act on The Pineapple Thief’s tour, and had signed on to be touring guitarist-vocalist for Big Big Train’s 2020 tour before the world shut down. When one door closes, another opens, though: McStine’s next gig was as touring guitarist / backing vocalist for the reunited Porcupine Tree in 2022-23.

Any way you slice it, it’s an impressive resume. And the collaborations and touring roles make good sense; McStine is a gifted player and singer who’s also something of a musical chameleon, seamlessly adapting his approach to each of the above-mentioned situations. Meanwhile, his many adventurous solo outings have at times felt like a quest for a musical identity.

As recounted in McStine’s recent interview with Anil Prasad’s Innerviews, work on Mutual Hallucinations dates back to the year before the pandemic, and developed over the course of its gestation into an album about dislocation and isolation, looking at how the distance has grown between not just human beings, but the distinct realities we inhabit inside our algorithmically curated social media silos. These distinct, divergent shared realities are the mutual hallucinations of the album’s title.

One of many interesting choices McStine makes here is to include four instrumentals, starting with opener “Bodies In Space,” a 2:01 nugget of playfully layered loops and synths that’s simultaneously charming and alienating. First vocal track “Counterintuitive” opens with just McStine’s voice and ukelele, probably not what anyone was expecting, which seems to be the point. “Counterintuitive creatures we are,” he sings, “It’s a wonder we’ve made it this far / If we just lived forever, we’d still look for new ways to die / And sell them to anyone who’d buy.” Musically, this 2:33 number is super-concise, almost ADD prog, shapeshifting every ten or 15 seconds by adding a new instrument, a new rhythm, a new bit of sonic wizardry.

The earnest “Adopted Son” opens with a mellow synth wash and acoustic guitar and has a more traditional structure, with a lilting, cycling melody that McStine keeps adding layers to, while the guesting Harrison keeps a hypnotic beat underneath. “Send Your Light” cleverly mixes electronic elements with drums, guitar and vocals, developing an almost prog-pop feel (think Talk Talk or Tears For Fears), before busting into a big, fuzzy, distorted guitar solo over the guesting Minnemann’s alternately restrained and explosive drums.

The album’s one extended piece at 9:29, “Economy Of Differences” is a dreamy mini-epic about the era of division we’re living through; it’s biting—“I keep trying to convince myself / There can’t be much further we can fall”—but also feels right on target. With no drums and Adam Holzman supplying layer upon layer of keyboards, the track develops a kind of tidal flow that carries through the second half, until near the end they begin peeling off the layers one by one, to beautiful effect.

“Bask” is a bite-sized instrumental featuring McStine on piano, guitars and Mellotron, accompanied by a string quartet playing an arrangement by Dave Gregory (XTC, Big Big Train). Airy and contemplative, a handful of reverbed electric guitar strums give it added dimension. The mood shifts abruptly again as third instrumental “The Scroll” opens with a complex backbeat from the guesting D’Virgilio as McStine paints rather math-rock figures with guitar… and then it gets fusion-y… and then there’s a psychedelic freak-out… and then it all disappears and reemerges in a fresh incarnation that segues into an airy Gilmour-esque guitar solo. Truly, it’s a track that contains multitudes. 

As with “Counterintuitive,” “Impossible Door” jumps straight into the vocal, as McStine gets his Jeff Lynne on with thrummy acoustic rhythm guitar and a loping late-Beatles/ELO feel, albeit with a Toy Matinee art-rock twist. The guardedly upbeat lyric addresses the value of striving: “A little light can shine once in a while / When you’re reaching for that impossible door / It might open right up for you.”

“Incandescent,” the last of the album’s four instrumentals, is all keyboards as McStine layers pulsing waves, playful piano bits and almost xylophone-sounding synths. Then, after a brief intermission, Adam Holzman joins the party and things veer off in a Dark Side Of The Moon direction. It’s light on substance, but it’s original and entertaining and fittingly hallucinatory.

The album finishes with “Remains,” as McStine again addresses themes of division, deceit and disillusion. The track begins drummerless and languid, with burbling textures behind his keening, plaintive vocal, until at 2:24, Minnemann’s drums and McStine’s fat-and-juicy guitar solo burst in to power a closing crescendo.

In the aforementioned Innerviews interview, McStine comments that “The people that listen to my music are the same as me. They’re people who aren’t caught up in categorizing the music. They just want to listen to it as a piece of art.” Indeed, and McStine’s art is not simple or reliant on surface appeal; it demands careful listening and focus to fully appreciate. These songs are moody and unpredictable and ugly and beautiful, sometimes all at once. They have presence, and that is a skill I don’t think it’s possible to teach.

Mutual Hallucinations is a perceptive, expansive, and above all lovingly-crafted album that challenges you to immerse yourself inside its art-rock aesthetic. Some will make it across that threshold and some won’t; all I can do is report that this particular listener stepped inside and discovered abundant treasures.

Rating: B+

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


Comments

 








© 2024 Jason Warburg and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Independent release, and is used for informational purposes only.