Mystic Traversion

Local band Mystic Traversion consisting of Missy Ray and Mark Bouthillier has released an enjoyable new twelve track disc titled Empty. Ray handles piano and vocals while Bouthillier handles guitar, percussion and a host of other instruments here. Both Ray and Bouthillier write the music and lyrics together that ranges from jazz and rock to folk and pop. Ray's breathy vocals shows shades of Sinead O'Conner and Dolores O'Riordan and along with her piano playing adds a uniqueness to the proceedings as Bouthillier adds texture to the songs through his guitar playing and percussion. Among the many highlights on Empty are "Four Leaf Clover", "Faces in the Rain", "Sentimental Fool", "Heartstrings" and "Mondays". The disc also includes an outstanding acoustic version of "Sentimental Fool". On the web check out www.mystictraversion.com - BestofWNY.com

"I've long thought that it might be fun to have synesthesia, a mental condition in which brain paths are crossed, causing a person to associate colors with numbers, or to know what a word "tastes" like, or even to be able to see the colors of music they hear. Duke Ellington had this condition, as does the bassist for the band, "Tool". It sounded like something "fun" to have. It is. Test drive it for forty minutes, you might want to buy it.

Immediately when Missy Ray chimes in on premier track, 'Four Leaf Clover', the late eighties come calling. Just her voice reminds me of easier times. You could drive for fun without worry of fuel prices, in the Eighties. You could lay out in your backyard and get a tan, not worried sick about global warming, in the Eighties. Her voice is beautiful, and it makes you wonder how she can also play bass guitar, piano and keyboard. Being in a two-person band didn't stop Traversion from behaving like a full-scale faction. Both members add significant contributions to 'Empty'. Mark Bouthillier plays the drums, guitar, percussion, and is in charge of arrangements. But these two are no strangers to each other. Missy Ray and Mark are former bandmantes from the band, No Effect.

The sound is vintage old-school. The music landscape is forever being carved and changed as time moves on. In 2008, emotions are very raw and primal. Songs today are very aggressive with emotion. When a band is angry, there's a good chance they're screaming into the mic, and effectively, your eardrums. But when Mystic Traversion tackles love, loneliness, and pain in these songs, it's done with coherent lyrics, and it's done with music that, keeping in line with the synesthesia, uses broader strokes instead of louder colors.

Moving out of the Eighties and into the Nineties, we have songs such as 'Taller Than Trees' and 'Mondays'. These songs have a more youthful feel and a brighter visage to them. In between those two songs is the heavier, 'Tide in Hell', my lyrical favorite of the disc. The very name implies something dark and tolling, but absent from the background are chants and demonic instruments, the lyrics are the execution of the mood, tone and pace of the song. And if the entire song wasn't lyrically sound, it would be very hard to have a chorus of, "Found myself tied in hell. Take me home, please take me home..."

Before we leave our test-drive of synesthesia, we are hit with an encore of sorts. The final song on the album is an acoustic version of track six, 'Sentimental Fools'. The songs exhibits a much different subliminal tone. The first time around the singer sounds as if she's recalling the song's events at a time far removed from when they actually occurred, and she's simply recalling what happened. In this acoustic version, it sounds as though the events were new and the emotions fresh. The contrast of the two is definitively impressive.

This CD is available online and you can get all of the info from the band themselves at MysticTraversion.com. Missy and Mark already have plans in place for a second CD. It's this go-go-go mentality that makes me think that if you don't get this CD now, you may have to wait for a box set. And now the synesthesia test-drive is complete. Whoa, total freak out!" ~ J.E. Smith

- Nightlife Magazine