More than anything he has posted in recent memory, “The Empty Quarter” by Mysterybear sounds like rock’n’roll. It rocks more than it rolls, which is to say it is more full of dense fulmination than of soulful rhythm. It certainly is not rock, not by a long stretch. “The Empty Quarter” is 20 minutes of what most frequent listeners to rock might think of as the sound of a guitar cord being plugged in, and then somehow stretched for the length of an opening act’s performance. It is deep swells and arching tones and fuzzy noise, all wrenched with a sense of deep concentration. At the 17-minute point, it reaches its zenith, a plateau of antic fire that is equal parts Jimi Hendrix and Terry Riley. “The Empty Quarter” was recorded live on July 5, 2013, at 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/mysterybear. More from Mysterybear at mysterybear.net.
I created a drone rework of this here: https://soundcloud.com/l-a-j-1/emptied-the-empty-quarter