Michael Regina – Mystique

Michael Regina – Mystique – Album Review

Well it’s been far too long since we had you on our pages Michael, welcome back good sir!

As they say, quality takes time, right?  We missed in 2024 when he released Mothership, but we’ve been there for most of his adventures along the way.  Always good to hear he’s got something new, because something new from Michael Regina is always good.  Mystique is no exception to that rule, and from the moment I pushed play and the title-track started up, it was like a return home to see (or hear in this case) an old friend.  Regina’s a niche cat with a pretty defined style/sound of his own within the Electro realm, so while I suppose it was fair to say that I wasn’t entirely surprised by what I was hearing on “Mystique” when it started to play, it was certainly a logical progression for what the man creates.  He’s carryin’ a big ol’ Electro stick to lay down a giant synthetic beat on the opening track, with his preferred palette of atmospheric sound to add alongside it.  Swirling and shifting away, “Mystique” has the similar mesmerizing and fascinating qualities we’ve become accustomed to in his instrumental music, and the professionalism he’s brought to his production & compositions all throughout his career so far to-date.

There are always going to be ideas that hit more strongly than others will.  Like for myself personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the piano-based melody that started out “Here Am I,” or perhaps more to the point, I wasn’t a huge fan of how long it hung around for before Michael switched it out for something else that was more interesting to me.  The main concerns there would be obvious I think…it’s really the first thing that we notice in the mix and it essentially drives the first quarter of this four minute tune, before coming back to finish things off in that bookend-style of song structuring.  Is the piano part a bit more welcome by the end?  It might be, but I still think we get so much of its static pattern at the start that it can’t help but feel like it’s too much of too much by the time we hear it at the end.  Of course, that’s my take on it…you might not feel that way.  From my perspective, the main allure of “Here Am I” all happens in the middle of the song where Regina spreads out the serenity factor…that’s what worked for me and my ears.  You can never really know what people will or won’t respond to as an artist…what felt like it didn’t work for me in “Here Am I” could very well be the hook you connected with the most.

Much to the opposite effect, I felt like Michael’s melodic choices on “Distant” were excellent.  His keyboard lead was really clever throughout, and there are solid progressions that reveal the sincerity you want to hear, even in cases like this where it’s conveyed synthetically or digitally.  That keyboard works perfectly as he wanders pensively over the brightest parts of the melody…the pacing is great, and the notes he’s using really make for a lead hook that listeners are certain to enjoy.  Some of the rest supporting him I wasn’t always as sure about…like I didn’t love the sound of the snare in this particular tune all that much – it was merely too similar throughout and didn’t have the realness I was looking for.  I also think that, by the time you reach track three, despite what you might like or what you might love in Michael’s tunes so far, it also becomes harder to argue that what you’ve heard on Mystique to this point doesn’t sound very much like a lateral move with his music rather than a progressive push forward in his own evolution.  There’s no doubt that if you’ve always enjoyed Regina’s records that you’ll enjoy this one too…and there’s value in that as well of course, but it’s my job to keep encouraging artists to explore their sound right out to the fringes and expand further on the things that they’ve done in the past already.  “Distant” is a quality tune for sure, but it would still be something you’d expect to hear.

Like, when you hear the glowing atmosphere of “Tales Of Tomorrow,” you start to recognize the formula in Michael’s approach.  Set the atmosphere up, have some fun with a few different sounds in the lead, but retain that slow pulse base at the core of the song…it’s got advantages and disadvantages, but among the chief concerns would be that at the same time as you’re working with an identifiable, signature sound of sorts, you’re also encroaching on a level of predictability that threatens creativity.  So for myself, while I still enjoy Michael’s music and I’m sure that I always will more or less, it’s moments where he’s branching out and doing things a little differently that carry more weight with me after all the tunes I’ve heard from him throughout the years.  In “Tales Of Tomorrow,” for example, it’s the uniqueness in an idea that you’ll hear in how he switches things up around the 2:45 mark…that’s cool to me, and it catches my attention because it’s noticeably different than what I’ve heard and it breaks from that pattern of predictability in all the right ways.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the melody I hear in this one as well, the production is always on point, that snare still needs additional variation perhaps, but other than that I dig the majority of what Regina’s got goin’ on, even if I want more versatility from him.

Yeah…I dunno Michael…I think there are peaks and valleys that occur naturally over the course of any career, and Mystique might reveal a comfort level in a reliable approach you know, rather than finding something here that challenges you more with your craft and creativity…that’s my take.  Like when I listen to a track like “Cruising The Stars,” I’m still able to enjoy it, because I like the Michael Regina sound overall…but at the same time, I can acknowledge there are risks that come along with a more standardized approach to the writing & how these songs move on a structural level.  The drums have been tougher for me this time around…a lot of it feels like he could achieve the same effect by hitting a preset beat, and I don’t think that’s the kind of vibe or impression you want to put out there in that respect.  That being said, that’s the kind of spot that reveals a place in his music where the potential exists for further evolution, and he can challenge himself to find more diverse ways to create his drum sounds, if he’s feeling so inclined of course.  Speaking more generally, I think he is able to usually pin down an interesting lead part or two that’ll keep people listening, and “Cruising The Stars” has that for sure.  It’s a bit of a push/pull situation, or a step forward and one backward type scenario…and usually when you end up in that kind of space creatively, it feels like a lateral move, like I’d mentioned earlier.

It can be tough in the digital realm to not sound too synthetic to an extent, and it can be equally tough to not rely too hard on certain patterns, like with what happened on “Here Am I” towards the start of the set-list, or later on as it starts its second half with “Lost Cities.”  The brighter sounds in the melody and the lead all worked really well I thought, but I was never quite sure of what the low-end brought to this tune.  I don’t actually mind the way it kind of meanders in the first 1:15 of the song – I liked that.  For me, it was the stuff that followed that I questioned whether or not it would connect as strongly with listeners out there.  Like, I know that Michael is making his music manually and putting the work in and such, but others might not when they hear certain repetitive patterns like the low end of “Lost Cities” where it sounds like something that could come along with the keyboard you just recently bought.  I get it in the sense that I know he needs a bedrock core that he can rely on in order to be able to do what he does in the lead, but a little variation would go a long way with what’s happening in the background of his music as well.  As far as “Lost Cities” is concerned, I felt like his best switch in sound was pulled right at the very end…with about a minute to go, Regina adds in one last highly interesting part for his finale.

Hopefully nothing I’m saying is getting too lost in translation here – there’s certainly an art to creating a signature sound of your own to begin with, even if the music becomes a little more predictable as a result, which essentially happens to any artist/band that has real identity in their sound.  I’m always going to be on the side of those out there doing what they love to do in the way they wanna do it, and I know that the listeners out there fully appreciate artists like Michael that make music they can rely on.  As I was sitting here listening to “And There Was Peace” and enjoying its serene, meditative qualities, I realized I should be noting how incredible it can be for people to know they can push play on a new album by their favorite artists and find something they’re sure to love if they’ve enjoyed what they’ve heard in the past.  So don’t get me wrong, I get it…it’s a delicate balance, because I think any artist still wants to challenge themselves to do new things, but at the same time, you want to be reliable for the audience you’ve earned too…it can be a bit of a tightrope walk to say the least (or most, cause I ramble).  Anyhow…”And There Was Peace” reminded me I should lighten up a bit here, so thank you Michael.  I know I personally appreciate the fact that whenever I’ve been in the mood for some peaceful, atmospheric tunes throughout the years, it’s been awesome to know I can click play on your music and get exactly that.  Mystique is a continuation of the journey in sound he started long ago & I respect that.

“The Gathering” has a sweetened air about it, and the keyboard melody that Regina introduces into the atmosphere works really well.  For myself personally, that was the part of the song that hit with the most noticeable impact, and I was happy to find it show up at points throughout “The Gathering.”  You see how fickle the world of critiquing music can be?  Really, what I’m commenting on here is no different than what we experienced with “Here Am I” earlier on in terms of repetition & such, but in this instance, I personally happened to enjoy that specific piece of “The Gathering” more so than I did the hook in “Here Am I” earlier on.  But you see what I mean, right?  Anybody might feel the same as I do, but maybe they feel the opposite way, and they like the hook in “Here Am I” as much as I like the one in “The Gathering” – it’s really all about what speaks to you as an individual when it comes to music.  As far as Michael is concerned, he’s doing all the right things to ensure a high standard of quality in the execution, and as I’ve said many times, that’s really all you ever can do, because people are gonna like what they like and love what they love.  Certain sounds will seem more universal or easier to enjoy than others do to me though, and I’d reckon that “The Gathering” has one of those at the core of its melody.

From my perspective, I felt like “Memory Dreams” was probably the most symbolic of the album’s title sound-wise…there’s a real Mystique to this particular tune, and I dig that.  I also really liked that, similar to how the song “Mystique” started the record, you get these interesting selections of muted vocal samples threaded into the music…you’d likely never be able to fully discern what’s being said, so that ends up giving the sound a different layer of texture and intrigue instead, and I think that’s a clever way to go about adding some imaginative pieces into a larger concept.  I’d assume what Michael is going for with “Memory Dreams” is somewhat like examining that liminal space in between realms of consciousness, so having the voices murmuring in the distance is really quite effective in communicating that.  It’s one of the longer cuts on the record in nearly reaching the five minute mark, but it’s also one of the tracks I felt seemed to express the concept Michael was looking to create more tangibly than some of the rest might have done, but that might just be my perspective and the way I’m hearing things too.  In any event, it’s a cut that’s definitely easy to enjoy and a strong back-to-back moment on the album coming right after “The Gathering” where it appears in the lineup of ten tracks on Mystique.

Not that Michael’s new record ever got too intense for someone to handle, but he chooses to end it on a more mild and gentle note with “A Place In Heaven” at the very end.  With the drum rolls added into the experience, it almost plays like a ceremonial procession of sorts at points along the way, but drifts into similar sonic comforts that Michael has always got somewhere within the atmospheric glow of his synthetic sound selection.  Exploring hints of cross-cultural ideas in both the lead and backing parts of this tune, it almost borderlines on something you’d expect to find in the Celtic sphere of sound as well, which I think carries a certain level of appeal to many folks out there that could be tuning in.  All-in-all, we’ve come a long way to get to “A Place In Heaven” and I’ve had lots to say along the way as I’ve been listening to Mystique over this past week or so.  While I’m always going to welcome more music from Michael Regina into this world and these speakers surrounding me, I have no qualms about encouraging him to continue to explore his sound and be slightly more daring when it comes to switching things up.  I think he’ll find doing that makes things feel more exciting and fresh to himself as an artist – there are so many rewards for really tapping into versatility & diversity inside the creative realm.  Mystique feels like it plays it relatively safe, but at the same time, delivers what I’m sure will be a satisfying listen to the dedicated fans that have enjoyed his music from the very first time they ever heard it.  A lateral move doesn’t ever have to be a bad thing by any definition…it can simply indicate there’s more of what you’ve already come to love…and if that’s truly the case on Mystique, then it’s hard to argue against the results.

Find out more about Michael Regina from his official website at:  https://www.michaelregina.com

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