Various Artists
The Mystery of the Yeti 2
TIP.World
Released 1999
Tracklist
01. Process - Under Mount Kailash 16:45
02. Hallucinogen - The Herb Garden 14:37
03. Total Eclipse - Freefalling Upwards 15:21
04. Doof - High On Mount Kailash 13:26
After hearing the first Mystery of the Yeti album I must say I was a little over eager to hear the follow up. Due to my anticipation I was fully prepared to be let down by this album. I was not however prepared for it to be better that the first installment, but it is! Absolutely amazing!
Instead of collaborating on every track each genious has written his own track under a general theme set down my the first album. The result is more individuality but the tracks manage to flow together as a cohesive journey just as well if not better than the first.
This is a definite must in anyone's collection, really! Not just ambient fans but fans of music! This is the sort of album that can get you into downtempo music!
Process - Under Mount Kailash
This intros with a familiar drone from the first album, this really helps in setting the mood and I instantly feel like this is a continuation of the journey. Last time I had been dumped outside the mountain after being inside & now I feel like I'm in the middle of our world again surrounded by mystery & confusion. Big slow stabby beats give us a bit of order though & the random confusing part of the track gives way to a more structured if still rather random piece of music. Little stabs of melody come in & out & in & out again.
The whole track leaves me with a sense of ordered chaos. Standing outside with my eyes closed listening as my imagination goes wild. When the flute comes in at the end it's transition is a little too sudden & it doesn't feel very connected to the rest of the track. Strange how the most structured part of a random track should be the least fitting.
Hallucinogen - The Herb Garden
Without a doubt, Hallucinogen's greatest track. This makes me think that Simon Posford should forget his upbeat stuff & concentrate on a full length, downbeat solo album. This track is way beyond anything on Twisted or The Lone Deranger & of course way beyond any of his disappointing compilations tracks after TLD.
The utterly twisted vocal samples are his best to date. Very trippy and a focal point to fill the mind. The baseline, the beats, the melody and all the background cries add up to complete brilliance. The vocals are about finding the Yeti through trance but all the important parts are too distorted to follow. The effect is complete indulgence. My brain is torn apart trying to follow the music which involves some really nice acoustic guitars, and trying to understand the message about the Yeti.]The timing of the beats & the ambient parts and the vocal are just about as perfect as is the timing of the melodies & other sounds.
This is a track that shows me just why Simon Posford is considered such a genious. His trance though for me just doesn't compare to his ambient.
Total Eclipse - Freefalling Upwards
The relaxed CD on Violent Relaxation was great but still nothing compared to this track. It not only has the shamanic feel previously felt in the Yeti chronicles but it also has that feeling of freefalling, upwards! Something I've obviously never done but have now managed to experience through music. Thank you Total Eclipse.
The trip-a-long beats, the rising synth drones & every little sound add to an upward rushing feel but still feels grounded & earthy. It could be that while my body & vision are fixed firmly on the ground while my mind races higher & higher. The longer the track goes the more real the feeling feels. Just close your eyes & let your mind soar & you will rise above all your petty troubles into a world of enlightened bliss. It's a shame the track has to stop but Total Eclipse does it perfectly. Suddenly the movement stops & we are left with ambience. It feels like I've gone up & up & up into a big chamber filled with me but it slowly fills up with more & more souls it breaks releasing a familiar YETI drone as if I've broken through the top!
Doof - High on Mount Kailash
Standing on the top of the world has it's own atmosphere, even watching in silence is a feeling of disbelief at the incredibility of where you are & what you are seeing. Such wonderment always gives rise to fantasy & fantasy is what this track is brimming with. Any moment you can expect to see the Yeti from the corner of your eye but I'm afraid when you shift your focus on to it, it disappears from sight all together. When the music leaves & the darkness sets in it leaves a sense of bleakness, but a beautiful bleakness, like being all alone surrounded by God's work. When the baseline & vocals come in however it's almost eerie how such beautiful music can come from such bleakness. And in the midst of all this he stands, The Yeti! Finally after an epic journey, the enlightened stand before the shaman's god. He calls to me. The abominable snowman maybe uncaught, unspecified but not unhonored. We are here, we will honour him, we will praise the name Banjankri until we breathe no more.
Doof has managed the perfect ending not only to this 4 part journey but to the 8 part journey that has been the Mystery of the Yeti.
