First of all, I’ve got to say that I love the band’s name: MYSTIC TAPE DECK. I have fond nostalgia for the cassette tape format, with all its hiss and possibility. Here comes another band out of Boise, to join those we’ve premiered on this blog (including Ghorot and Ealdor Bealu), and this pair with roots in the DIY ‘90s scene seems to be aiming for something big and out of the ordinary.
Tags I’ve never seen before appear connected with their projects, including garage jazz and gutter prog. Whatever you want to call it, it’ll get right under your skin and into your bloodstream. At times bizarre, baddass, and amusing; at others sublime and soothing. That is how I would sum up the most entertaining 16-song collection that was Bards: Of The Shimmering Seraphs last year, the third in a series reaching back to 2019. Each installment has been a labor of love production, complete with books and artwork exploring hidden knowledge of the underground.
The duo loves experimentation, venturing into realms of folk, electronica, rock, and metal – sometimes mashing things up obscenely, but at the same time tempered with an accessibility that pulls magnetically toward rhythm and harmony. You can tell they’re having fun with it, and that makes me smile.
“The Soothsayer’s Bone” is Mystic Tape Deck’s latest single, and I appreciate that it comes with a lore of its own, continuing with the theme of the wandering bard that seems to umbrella their opus well. The band frames this song with an old Shakespeare quote, most apropos for our time: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
If you are a fan of randomness, but with intelligence, mystery, and history behind it, I’m betting you’ll dig what this band is dishing.
Look for more on Mystic Tape Deck website and Bandcamp page.
Stick it on your own eclectic playlist with bands like Tenacious D, Mr. Bungle, Gentle Giant, Frank Zappa, Melvins, System of a Down, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.
Give ear…
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”― William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Boise ID — “The Soothsayer’s Bone” is said to be the femur of a prophet and psychic so ancient, their name has been forgotten to the mists of time. The bone has been passed down through a long chain of people in positions of great power around the world. It is said to possess great fortune telling powers, granting whomever holds it the ability to use it as a sort of divining rod to merge normally disconnected timelines and open a window through the astral veil – through which the future can be seen. The outcomes appear as implanted “memories” in the mind of the user, who can then “see” the future outcome of a chain of causal events as though they are recalling something they had already experienced.
The relic has a history of being passed down through a long chain of tyrannical rulers who have used the powers of the bone to forecast the outcome of military battles and political upheavals. It was especially useful in the hands of despots and oppressors who used it only for personal gain and securing their continuing authoritarian power.
While the bone could potentially be used to advance humanity and create a more just and peaceful world, instead it has passed the eons in the hands of simple minded evildoers who use it instead for personal gain and power over others. Some legends say that it was always meant to serve only the needs of its most selfish and hateful masters, but that one day it will fall into the possession of someone who will make great peace with it and vanquish evil from the Earth.
Nazilic scholars say that the relic has existed through multiple iterations of the great cycle, and is fiercely guarded by those in power who hold it, preventing it from landing in the hands of the one who will use it for the goodly benefit of all humankind. Many of these despotic leaders have insisted they be buried with the artifact, being unwilling to part with it even in death, but it has been dug up and robbed from their graves each and every time.
Nazilic monks believe it is their destiny to finally possess the bone, and that it will play a role in the final dissolution of the shining one by falling into the hands of one who shall rise from amongst their own ranks. So far, however, they have not been successful in obtaining it through several iterations of the great cycle.
MYSTIC TAPE DECK will reveal “The Soothsayer’s Bone” on April 13th, 2026.
Initially conceived in the minds of two 11 year old boys making up imaginary bands and drawing album covers for them, Mystic Tape Deck was officially forged and magnetized in a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign in 2019.
This was when Patrick S. Perkins (ref. as “PS Perkins”) and Ron Thomas came together (again*) to make the first installment of Mystic Tape Deck’s BARDS series, “BARDS: Of The Morning Star.”
The initial edition was a 52 page book and a 78 minute CD containing DIY home recordings which served to tell the story of a mystical being known as “The Shining One.” This first book/CD was intended as a Minerval’s gateway and guide to a vast and mysterious parallel universe where a deeply strange and art-obsessed cult of followers lurk in urban communes they call “encroachments” and who use performance art as both ritual and religion, referring to themselves as “The Cloak of Nazili” or simply, “The Cloak.”
Since the first installment was published, Mystic Tape Deck have produced an additional two book/CD installations in the BARDS series which further expand on the home-spun mythology underpinning this imaginary and eldritch monastic tradition. At least two more of these are in the works, with book 4 already underway and nearing completion (est. release date late 2026). Taken as a whole, the BARDS series also stands as a testament to the diy ethic and what is possible if you just continue moving forward a little at a time. The project begins with a decidedly lo-fi approach to the music and books as we embark on a “figure it out as we go” type of journey that progressively gains clarity of vision and production as its creators gain experience by creating it. It has always been of paramount importance to us that above all else, it gets made, and put out into the world – rather than allow it to languish and rot for a pretense of “perfection” in the dark and spidery basement where we create it. The story of its creators learning how to create and conquer these ideas is inextricably woven throughout the entire experience.
Mystic Tape Deck has always kept at the center of its vision a simple motto: “More Than Sounds,” and we continue to deliver on that promise with everything we create. This isn’t just music. This is multimedia storytelling, in a realm where we can be as weird and wild as we want (dare) to be.
The project explores many deeply spiritual concepts, ancient alchemical and hermetic wisdom, mixed with a healthy dose of decided absurdity, as it drills into the mechanisms of The Cloak and the mythical being at its center known simply as “The Shining One.”
Perkins and Thomas spent most of the 90’s playing together in various incarnations of bands such as “Godzoundz”, “Size Of…” and others. They self released many cassettes, did a couple DIY tours, and played some pretty wild shows, serving as one of the more bizarre fixtures of the Boise underground DIY scene for over a decade. Perkins and Thomas also form the experimental improv performance art and musical duo known as “The Pleasant Company” (indefinite hiatus).
Perkins played drums for Boise band “The Universal” from 2005 – 2011 releasing a self titled EP recorded at local Chop Shop studio, and a full length recorded by Grammy winning producer Art Hodge “Everything is Everywhere (2009)” for which Perkins also designed the six panel cover art.
Perkins was also a founding member of seminal Boise band Caustic Resin, playing drums on 2003’s “Keep On Truckin” (Up! Records) as well as guest appearances on several other albums.
visit MYSTIC TAPE DECK online:
Website: https://mystictapedeck.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mystictapedeck/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mystictapedeck
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mystictapedeck
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mystictapedeck
Bandcamp: https://mystictapedeck.bandcamp.com
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mystictapedeck
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mystictapedeck
Tidal: https://tidal.com/artist/31136139/u
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/mystic-tape-deck/1577567494
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1VavhxTNr3KkBENd5AGiym
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