Mystery Palace

There's no guide or manual for what Mystery Palace does, no easy clockwork formula hidden in the Minneapolis-based trio's agenda. Sequenced electronics-plus-live instruments offer a tough enough row to hoe on their own; when the former come from a pair of heavily circuit-bent Yamaha mid-pro keyboards, opportunities for disaster multiply exponentially.

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Luckily, so do opportunities for the sorts of disastrous successes the band enjoys regularly, largely thanks to founder Food Team's aptitude for riding his profusely toggle-switxhed brainchildren's outputs like a porn star. Granted, the artist sometimes still known as Ryan Olcott has had practice galore, having built and mastered the instruments with the sort of diligence usually enountered only in fantasy novels and large-scale government operations. Only after countless hours of woodshedding and a healthy slew of live dates did he enlist ex-Poor Line Condition bassist James Buckley and veteran Vertiform drummer Joey Van Phillips in what must have seemed like a very Quixotic endeavor at the time.

Olcott got lucky. Not only does his rhythm section provide the perfect complement to the remarkably varied profusion of colors and textures he wrenches from his Frankeninstruments (imagine an exceedingly fluid Warp + Mego fusion); like Olcott, Buckley and Phillips are actually capable of responding to the digital critters' powerful surprise-generating capacity so gracefully, you'd never guess the extent of their vigilance. Or maybe that part is all a shuck of sorts. Lately, the whole operation has proceeded so smoothly onstage and in the studio (where the band has proceeded well beyond improvisation, recording elegantly structured songs, complete with vocals) that you can't help but wonder if the keyboards, having grown minds of their own, are merely doing their best to keep the fellas alert. God knows, they are.

Past Shows


Oct
9
th
2011
7th St Entry
Oct
9
th
2011
7th St Entry

Moonface

with Mystery Palace
Aug
12
th
2011
7th St Entry
Aug
12
th
2011
7th St Entry

Mystery Palace

with Dosh and Sovietpanda
Feb
25
th
2011
7th St Entry
Feb
25
th
2011
7th St Entry

Sleeping in the Aviary

with Mystery Palace, Teenage Moods and Buffalo Moon
Jan
24
th
2011
7th St Entry
Jan
24
th
2011
7th St Entry

School Of Seven Bells

with Mystery Palace
Sep
10
th
2010
7th St Entry
Sep
10
th
2010
7th St Entry

Estate

with Mystery Palace, Dada Trash Collage and DJ SWEET TALK
Jun
4
th
2010
Mainroom
Jun
4
th
2010
Mainroom

Solid Gold

with Mystery Palace, JBM and Brown Moses

More Shows

Feb
26
th
7th St Entry

Nina Luna

with anni xo, Harlow and Emily Rhea
Mar
29
th
First Avenue

Mayhem

with Mortiis, Imperial Triumphant and New Skeletal Faces
Mar
21
st
Turf Club

BJ Barham (American Aquarium Solo)

May
14
th
7th St Entry

Kyle Gordon