The Mystic Underground

THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND are Brooklyn based duo Vladimir Valette on vocals and Benedetto Socci on keyboards. Daniel Cousins joins them live to showcase the hereditary Big Apple’s electro disco genre, born out of the legends of like PET SHOP BOYS, DEPECHE MODE, KON KAN, INFORMATION SOCIETY and NEW ORDER.

Having started to write songs about “life, set to a dance beat”, the duo gained popularity within the New York live circuit, supporting the likes of A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS and FREEZEPOP along the way.

The self-professed “soundtrack of your trials and tribulations, injecting a generous dollop of drama along with extra helpings of synths and sass into an otherwise dreary and desolate musical landscape”, THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND have released a few EPs and now the long player ‘Protagonist’ is being aired to satisfy any self-respecting lover of Britpop, new wave, alternative dance and electronica.

The opening ‘Evelyn, You’ll Be The Death Of Me’, having previously featured on the ‘Dreamers & Lovers’ EP, sounds like a slowed down Eurotrack, bearing the hallmarks of a good club number; systematic and measured however.

the-mystic-underground-2016‘War Of The Roses’ and ‘In The Waking Hour’ push the envelope, both being grown up electro dance tracks with a twist. The feeling prevails that THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND open the door to something new entirely, while still respecting their musical roots.

The motto of “pop songs for the disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised” can be heard in ERASURE-esque ‘Laughter Turns To Tears’, while the futuristic ‘Carry On, Young Men’ is a hypnotic anthem á la HEAVEN 17.

The liquid electronica sips through vocally superb ‘That’s How Rumours Start’; ‘A Future In Film’ however, takes on a very Europop approach. More subdued pieces are showcased in ‘Here In My House’, which although slower, is still very synth charged and poignantly moody.



The tempo changes altogether with the PET SHOP BOYS’ style induced musical coma of ‘Those Evil Urges’ which vocally is rather reminiscent of MARC ALMOND.

The best has been left to last, where ‘Remember Me’ enters with its guitars reminiscent of NEW ORDER’s ‘Leave Me Alone’. The bass leads the melody in a manner which THE CURE wouldn’t be ashamed of and the reversed drums with string synth complete the sombre atmosphere of the track.

THE MYSTIC UNDERGROUND claim they’re “looking to grab a foothold in the minds and hearts of listeners everywhere, (…) want to serve as a reminder that the term ‘pop music’ isn’t an obscenity. We write songs with something to say and aren’t afraid to push the envelope and have you singing along in the process”

With ‘Protagonist’, they’ve pretty much achieved just that. - The Electricity Club

‘Unexpected comes often’ …

.. is a German saying which means something like “things always seem to happen when you least expect them”. And this pins it down for this album.

Usually we have a sense for it if and when an interesting record comes in for review. Then there are the ones we´d like to review, but don’t even receive a promo on direct request (especially younger acts should really overthink their marketing strategies here!). In addition, we daily receive promotions, we won’t review for very good reasons.

And then there are these few happy cases, when a band sends us their album for “listening”, without expecting anything. And if you are as positively surprised, as we were with the present album of ‘The Mystic Underground’, it´s something special.

Feels like a hidden secret uncovered

It’s really a pity that I never heard of the band before. This is already the third album in the discography of ‘The Mystic Underground’. So I can’t comment on the predecessors at the moment. The current album ‘Protagonist’, however, is very appealing to us. Stylistic paragons are clearly greats like ‘Depeche Mode‘, ‘Pet Shop Boys‘ and other 80s Synth Pop bands. However, these guys from New York have their very own unmistakable style. I’m particularly impressed by and want to emphasize the soothing and gentle voice of the singer.

‘Let the music play’

The first seconds of the opener ‘Evelyn, You’ll Be The Death Of Me’ have captivated me. With the onset of the first vocals I was completely seized and hoped for more such great songs. With the second song ‘War Of The Roses’ my hopes were more than satisfied. This is a super catchy and classic Synth Pop song that could write almost history with the right airtime on radio. The bassline is simple, but awesomely groovy and is matchable to well-known Synth Pop hits in every way!

‘In The Walking Hour’ sounds bleak and at the same time gorgeously beautiful. If you like the early albums like ‘Nightfall’ or ‘Truth’ of ‘Beborn Beton‘ then you surely will love this song. The subsequent song ‘Laughter Turns To Tears’ hits the same, melancholic score, followed by another potential hit called ‘Carry On, Young Men’. This song comes along with an extremely groovy hook and a significant, memorable chorus.

‘Crash and burn you never learn’ …

… is one of the lyrical lines that has burned itself into my mind after the first listening of ‘That’s How Rumours Start’. This song has definitely the quality of a classic ‘Erasure‘ song and I strongly recommend you to listen in on this masterpiece. To be honest, for ‘A Future In Film’, I have needed a few attempts, since it is a bit more multi-layered and complex than the other songs. But once the knot is untangled, the song appears qualitatively no way inferior to the other tracks.

Much more quietly and emotionally ‘The Mystic Undground’ present their song ‘Here In My House‘. Sonically it differs to the rest of the album, but it sounds awesomely unique. Brilliant lyrics are melted with slow, cold beats. The bells in the song ‘Those Evil Urges’ are reminiscents of a typical 90s ‘Pet Shop Boys‘-track, and it´s just as catchy as that. Nevertheless the song reveals its very own character. BTW: We are proud to present ‘Those Evil Urges’ on the next Electrozombies compilation ‘Undead And Open-Minded Vol.2‘.

Closing words

What an awesome ‘Synth-Pop-tastic’ album! Running a webzine like Electrozombies costs tons of spare time and quite some money, but these are the precious moments when you’ve found an unexpected jewel like ‘Protagonist’. Out of the blue, we received an album that keeps us astonished. A long-player full of marvelous Synth Pop tunes. Please support these young Synth Pop heroes by buying the album ‘Protagonist’ now! - Electrozombies

I’m not sure what I expected from this album, but it certainly wasn’t the energetic burst of sound which introduces the first track. So rarely does an album grab my interest within the first thirty seconds.

It’s dancier than I anticipated from the description of ‘indie electronic pop’, but in a very welcome way, and as the vocals come in, at once providing contrast to, and mellowing of the instrumentals, it’s entirely clear that I’m going to enjoy listening to this.

There’s an obvious wealth of influences here, and a sense of familiarity, but not. A passing reminder of something here, another there, and a healthy dose of something new entirely. Throughout, I’ve had a faint niggling of ‘have I heard this before’, and not in the sense of it sounding like a cover or a copy, but simply in the fact that there are many layers of musical style going on – probably some of which ‘shouldn’t’ work together at all, but The Mystic Underground are making them work, and it’s this familiar yet unfamiliar sound throughout the album which not only secures attention from the very first note, but retains it until the very end.

Darkly dancy at times, more chilled out maudlin at others – in places there’s even an almost Bauhaus-like edge to the sound. Certainly there are the core influences from classic eighties electronica, but this is far from yet another tired carbon copy of a thirty year old template. There’s at least a couple of tracks which more closely remind me of modern synthpop along the lines of Beborn Beton, Diorama, Hendric de la Couer – but again nothing overt. Its abundantly clear that the overall sound going on is rich and varied, and one all of their own.

Track to track, the sound shifts from very clear eighties influences – War of the Roses in particular has a distinctive post-punk feel to it – to a more up to date edge, with the poppier beats of Future in Film contrasting perfectly with the slightly melancholic vocals. This album certainly keeps you on your toes from beginning to end. - Electronic North