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Though it seems contradictory to search for the ethereal in genres as utterly human-made as synthwave and video game soundtracks, there's no shortage of modern artists doing just that and succeeding. Independent artists mainly drove the vaporwave craze that peaked a few years and showed a knack for transforming the accessible into something transcendent, playing with the opulent aesthetics of Tokyo city pop and the ease of modern technology to evoke an imagined past in creating the modern. 

Taipei-based trio Mong Tong is of this decade-spanning ilk, making music that wavers like a well-played audio cassette and sounds like it belongs in the dramatic cutscenes of an early 1990s Capcom installment. On full-length debut Mystery, the group's human members, brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi, put together seven tracks of a thick atmosphere, taking concrete media influences and creating something celestial. The trio's third member is a noncorporeal computerized member, as they tell it -- just as important a component in the creative process. The album sees them joining the Guruguru Brain label that serves as home to psych-rock group Kikagaku Moyo (two members of which founded the label). 

Largely based around samples and synths, Mystery is nonetheless richly multi-instrumental. That is clear from the ornate "Intro" that opens the album, where Hom's bass adds an urgent undertone to darkly ornate keys. The title track follows, and here, Chi's guitar goes heavy on the wahs, sounding like back alleys and neon lights over a melody that sways upward. Both are equally important in driving forward the shimmering "Chakra". Vintage vocal samples open ominous "Jou-tau", on which the occasional soaring of synths cuts through the languid wailing of guitar. – Pop Matters