Medroxy Progesterone Acetate - Church Of Mandrax (Sentient Recognition Archive, 2009)

Medroxy Progesterone Acetate - Church Of Mandrax


Here's a noisey dude that apparently has been around for a motherfucking decade doing shit like opening for John Wiese and occasionally dabbling in the tragically under-appreciated Number None. Best of all? He's got an East Coast tour in the works. But alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. Wtf is this Church Of Mandrax all about?

Throw on your shitty pair of boots, cross the murky swamp, hang a right at the split tree, go until you find the two tailed turtle, then listen veeerry closely. You should hear some scary noises. Follow those sounds and you'll reach the rusted shack they call the Church of Mandrax where Medroxy Progesterone Acetate is conjuring fucked up sounds from his mostly dead electronics.

The noise on this record is fucking incredible. On the surface, it's a lot of buzzing and droning that would probably scare most of your relatives (except for that one cool cousin who really looks up you and listens to every mix tape you give him). However there isn't any seizure inducing power electronics on Mandrax (well, maybe a little, like on "Trying To Sell Some Broken Amps" which actually sounds like it was recorded using some broken amps). For the most part, it sounds like distant band saws, fog horns, church bells, and whatever kind of strange reptiles you'd find in a swamp, with swarms of gnats whirring around your head.

Some of my favorite noise records are the ones that are so deeply layered that a hundred listens still wouldn't reveal all of the beautiful and delicate intricacies. Church Of Mandrax is one of those records. Sheet upon sheet of dirty & spaced out electronics that are half snowy lullaby, half drugged nightmare.

How MPA has slipped below my radar for so long I'll never know. But I sure am glad I discovered him before he toured, otherwise I might have missed him in Boston and that would have been a fucking catastrophe. Also of note, Church Of Mandrax is on the newish DIY label Sentient Recognition Archive (aka SRA) who I will also have to keep my eye on seeing as they've put out stuff by Ophibre, Caldera Lakes, and Machinefabriek among others. Machinefabriek, people! That automatically gives them credibility (as if they needed it after putting out Mandrax).