Got a solo cassette from a chap who calls themselves Mollbury Medical Research Project. The D7 Project (NO LABEL) arrived in an envelope sent by Ali Murray from Isle of Lewis in north Scotland, who not long ago sent us their solo cassette as The Lonely Bell; today’s record was made by someone called Gary apparently, but oddly enough his fulsome letter is very similar to Ali’s (full of disclaimers and shoulder-shrugging, I’m not-really-an-experimental-musician but…), and his music isn’t too dissimilar either – solo, made with a guitar and effects, and situated somewhere in the ever-growing terrain of ambient drone.
Thematically, today’s tape explores – or rather hints at, in a very oblique manner – ideas about forbidden experiments taking place in some nameless bunker, illustrated by the cover images of blank sterile walls, empty rooms, and track titles such as ‘Extensive Neurological Testing’ and ‘Brain Activity’. Even the name Mollbury Medical Research Project is probably intended to trigger associations with genuine military science facilities, such as Porton Down in Salisbury. At this point you’re perhaps tempted to align this with Belbury Poly or other such fictional identities, but Mollbury doesn’t quite convince us at some level. I’ll happily buy into the sinister post-war subtext, but the wispy, uncertain and inconclusive music isn’t trying hard enough, failing to induce paranoia or even a mild concern. Other reviewers have found it disturbing and unsettling, and probing those parts of the mind (like David Cronenburg used to do) we don’t wish to have probed. The tape contains some occluded atmospheres that are quite pleasing, but the player isn’t able to make their sounds work for them; not enough concrete moments, timid where it should be bold, each piece trailing away into the ether leaving behind little that’s memorable. (19/06/2023)