The four tracks on this 2009 album that obviously belong together are a fabulous update of the beat-less, sampled-vocal, semi-ambient soundscapes of earlier periods (e.g. Trial by Intimacy, Orchestra Arcana, Chance Encounters, Console) - but blown out into outré epics with complicated plots:
This is Like a Galaxy (7:04)
Yes and No (8:36)
Matérialisation Phenomena (11:01)
The Departure of the 20th Century (16:24)
Together, these tracks total 43 minutes – a perfect Bill Nelson LP, unlike any other music he created in this period.
Hypnotic, trippy, non-song adventures. Headphone music. Shifting sonic sands of meditative psychedelia - patient, full of surprises, and sometimes menacing.
Two tracks interrupt this experience:
The title track (more than 15 minutes) is a vocal performance that collages Dreamsville forum members’ submitted lyrics (mine included). It is a nice souvenir, but it has no business being on this album.
“When the Invisible Circus Comes to Town” is a fun guitar/rhythm track from the period, but it also has no business being on this album.
If you’re not already intimate with this album – or if it has been a while – I recommend you isolate the four tracks that make the singular statement and play them several times.
If forced to add tracks to the core-four of "Non-Stop Mystery Action," I might choose the pure instrumentals "The Raindrop Collector" (And We Fell Into a Dream, 2007) and "All Alone in a Boat of His Own" (Neptune's Galaxy, 2006).