Every time that we’ve listened to a new drop from Indiana experimental artist Evan Mix, it feels like a mushroom trip. It’s always surreal, entertaining, intriguing and completely different.
His newest album, a 10-track tour-de-strange, is titled Described with Adjectives, and it doesn’t stray from Mix’s well-establish brand of music: Mix music. That’s because it is unlike anything you’ll hear anywhere else.
Mix’s tag-line for his fifth album, he says, is “homemade pop music that represents the heart of southern Indiana.” Well, with all due respect, that is an over-simplification of a multi-layered, multi-dimensional work of obscure sonic and poetic art.
The album opens with the lazy, minimalistic chorus-sung track, “Greeting Quayvon.” How compelling it is; some might even think of it as a children’s’-leaning song – complete with a magical electric piano; an enchanting xylophone riff, and what sounds like drumsticks on cans, along with other unidentified instruments and sound effects.
On the album’s title track, Mix and producer/long-time collaborator, Kaiser, create a haunting – and yet somehow unintimidating – wave of sounds with organ whirls that transform into piano riffs as Mix sings theatrically – like an actor in a stage performance – in his strangely seductive way.
It’s no stretch to observe that Mix’s musical and lyrical influences and sentiments are of another age; but never in a boring or old-hat way.
On “Nobody Flees,” Mix and Kaiser collected the beats per minute ratio from several songs – including Justin Timberlake’s ‘SexyBack’ and Elton John’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ – to come up with “an average beats-per-minute,” he says.
“The song ended up having a BPM of 157. To make the bass sound seem faster than the drums, the bass sound was filtered through an arpeggiator plugin. There are a few short tempo increases in the middle of the song as well.”
The track is completely odd-ball, but again, it’s engaging, fun and appealing. At first, some listeners may be turned away by Mix’s totally unconventional approach and sound.
But listen more, and with some different glasses on (if that makes any sense), it becomes quite an entertaining and enlightening experience.
Many of Mix’s tracks do just that: and yet, somehow, in all of their weirdness and free-form styling, they draw you in to listen more. And we’re not even going to dive into examining his lyrics in-depth because that would take many hours to examine competently.
Therefore, you’ll want to absorb the lyrics yourself. That is not hard: Mix’s sonic storytelling, if you will, is clear and well-spoken – but still quirky – on track after track.
In fact, there seems to be a deliberate effort to ensure the words are forefront in the recordings and the music and sound effects secondary so that there is never any chance of the words being drowned out (which is a common issue with many DIY recordings).
The genre-labeling of Mix’s musical escapades is hard to nail down, but essentially it’s avant garde/experimental/obscure and many of his tracks would play well on the famous and long-running Dr. Demento Show. I dare to say that even for Dr. Demento, many of Mix’s tracks are too different, too original and perhaps too trippy.
He reminds me of a cross between CAKE, Brian Eno, The Nails and any number of artists you’ll hear on the Dr. D show. Mix’s music is definitely not for everyone, but for those who do follow, or are open to ‘very different,’ experimental music, Mix is likely to become a nice new find.
Then there’s the trippy, exceptionally wordy, “In Heavy, Smoking Coats,” that comes off more like a slam poetry session in the Fifth Element than a song one would find on an album in 2020. A tepid, understated beat serves as the backdrop of his reading.
The anti-folk pop track, “Sure, I’ll Spot You,” is propelled by Mix’s signature talk-singing style, and Casio and piano keys within a swirl of sound effects and homemade percussions.
Oddly, this track stands out; perhaps one reason is that it’s as close to a ‘song’ than most of Mix’s pieces.
For what it’s worth, it’s perhaps one of the more structured songs, with its funky beat, a vein of melody that underlies the track, and a tropical electric piano riff that is unmistakably joyous.
Then there is the freakshow number, “Years and Hours of Infertility,” which is like many of Mix’s works; it’s not a song in the conventional sense, but rather a conglomeration of words, instrumentations and experimentation.
A lyric from the bumbling track mentions ‘Hurstbourne,’ a reference to Hurstbourne Pkwy in Louisville, Kentucky.
It was there that Mix had a meeting canceled after having driven a half-hour from his home in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.
The lyric: ‘Scattered five dollars worth along Hurstbourne’ refers to how much money he spent on gas to get to and from Louisville.
“The melody was always planned to be in a major key so it would sound appropriate for several voices to sing together,” he adds. “It tells a tale of someone who sounds young but doesn’t think they’re young.”
“Deteriorating Spirit” is so strange and anti-pop that many may not even want to listen to all of it. It could be that to some it feels that at times Mix is intentionally pushing the boundaries of obsurdity to provoke an emotion or a reponse from the listener.
If that is true, I feel it’s innocently nefarious – like a devious child who plays tricks but is forgiven because he is so cute.
The fact is that in the final analysis Mix’s arrangements don’t necessarily come off as annoying or petty – at least to this listener – is another testiment to his child-like, theatrical and quirky talents.
The anti-pop number, “The Nights Between Travel,” features strangely tweaked reverb effects, a skipping drum machine beat and keys and xylophone riffs.
The closer, “Does Anyone Like January,” is one of producer Kaiser and Mix’s best collaborations on the album. Even though Kaiser produced the entire L.P., Mix also believes that “Does Anyone Like January” is his highlight work.
“In the original demo for the song, both the piano and vibraphone played straight through from beginning to end. Kaiser was able to listen to the arrangement and decide when to mute either part so it wouldn’t clash with the other sounds. He also made helpful recommendations on the phrasing of the vocals in this song.”
Some would say – without really examining his music closely – that Mix’s works are so offbeat; unscripted; demoey; chaotic, and unconventional that they are essentially unlistenable.
But, I disagree, but not without merit. That sentiment – that Mix’s work is ‘unlistenable’ – was my own at first. Soon, however, a transformation happened.
After some time of adjustment and settling into Mix’s weirdo world, and really listening, my mind was changed. Mix is an underground quirky 21st century beat poet who creates instrumental riffs, sounds and effects that are not music, but more like acts in a play or perhaps even adult child’s play. Whichever one prefers.
https://www.facebook.com/mixevan/