Hold on a sec before you hit that back button folks, this isn't music about Dungeons and Dragons or whereever the term Hedge Wizard is really from: it is actually music about how if you look closely enough at the mundane, the ordinary, the unassuming - you will find magic. Before you cram your head into a hedge looking for a wizard, try instead to find magic by listening to the first album by this humble and dusty dungeon synth project,
More True Than Time Thought.
Those quaint suggestions of mystery and nostalgia implied by the perplexing album name are fuzzed right into the tracks here; reedy, stringy and organy synths lean over one another in arrangements that are patient, gentle and simplistic but conjure complex emotions. Past reflection, present contemplation and future trepidation all occur pretty much simultaneously here as the album navigates anxiety and solace like a lingering gaze into flames. The timbres are certainly all very medieval or old school RPG slanted, but
More True... doesn't make the fairly typical error associated with the genre by attempting to be too lofty or grandiose. The warbling, atmospheric synths and light percussion stay remarkably grounded and can just as easily be associated in the imagination's eye with towers or quests and stuff as they can with very real feelings like aching sentimentality, forgotten friends and a resolve to do things better from now on.
This is not an album that offers any surprises in the context of dungeon synth, it is for all of its humble 30 minute run time simply a nice example of how the genre's kitschy reimaginings of formative fantastical motifs can still be moving. "More True Than Time Thought" feels ancient and obscure yet warm and familiar at the same time.
