Mystery Friends - 'Time and Place'
Washington DC’s Mystery Friends are on something of a roll at the moment. Their third single in as many months, ‘Time and Place’ is a shimmering, synth-driven affair that’s interested in exploring the idea that, despite our best intentions, we often end up in the same place. Physically or otherwise.
Four minutes of wistful nostalgia, it’s synth-pop sans optimism. That doesn’t mean to say that ‘Time and Place’ is a dour single. Far from it in fact. But it does look back on the relationship in question with realism rather than rose-tinted glasses, and in doing so proves itself a breath of fresh air within the genre.
The same could be said for the track’s closing third as well. Until now, icy washes of synth, dual vocals and crisp percussion have provided ‘Time and Place’s irresistible yet rigid framework. Yet this is something that seems to evaporate as the track progresses.
It’s an interesting direction to take, and one that works well given the track’s nostalgic approach to relationships past, and the way in which memories of these relationships are sharp, before their edges blur, eventually becoming something we remember with a fond lack of clarity- something reflected directly in the airy, hypnotic, almost psychedelic formlessness that descends over the final third.
Though icy in its delivery and realistic in its narrative, ‘Time and Place’ never once feels emotionally cold. It’s wise in its memories and benefits from hindsight. As such it’s about as mature an indie-pop offering as one’s likely to find, yet never once lacks the immediacy found in more typical tracks. A single well worth seeking out.
Words of Dave Beech