Trapezium: "The Rumble of the Amplifiers"
 By 1996, the Mystic music scene was in the full throes of the Splinter Years. The first and second waves of bands, such as Alexander Field, Lotus, Skimbleshanks, and 17 Relics, had passed, and several new acts ushered in a new era. The 16-track Trapezium compilation LP offers us a fascinating snapshot of this chaotic time period, which resulted in some of the most mature and complex songs ever recorded by the Mystic scene up to that point.
Lotus soldiered on as a three piece when Charley Eastman left the band to start mona gritch, and later onDasher. The big three of Skimbleshanks all had new groups: CJ Stankewich leading Magpie from Seattle, Rich Martin teamed with Brooks Townsend and Doug Hodges in the ultra-exciting Grand Passion, and Mat Tarbox added bass guitar to his repertoire with Dawn Estabrooks and Rich Freitas in Delta of Venus.
The 17 Relics splintered as well, into three new bands: Alex Pellish and Paul Brockett created Vera from Alice, Michael Fitzgerald and Dave Bentley played in their new NYC locale as Map, and Freitas played his guitar stylings with Delta. Talbot Pray of the Alexander Field created a psychedelic power duo with Tarbox on vocals in Cigarette, and Field drummer Roger Peffely took stage behind the mic writing and singing for the Ambertones.
But not all the acts were revamps: Dayne Duranti and Dan DeLauro had solidified the position as the biggest band in town with Doug; Adams Onis continued unabated by style or trends to create their infectious weird pop. Zach Johnson led the fantastic new band $3 Depth Charge, with Gina Marie and Bill Pia, wielding guitar and drums in bent and brutal slabs. Several folks who were living in other cities continued to make music in the Mystic vein, such as Casey Cyr in NYC, who created ethereal pop as Psyche, Ben Lawrence’s four track experiments as Jack de Mello in Northampton, MA, and Mike Cyr’s studio wizardry as Col. Cobb in NYC.
Dan Curland, owner of local record shop Mystic Disc, decided to give back to the scene in a permanent way, by releasing the Trapezium project and bringing in a group of creative folks to realize the record. The bands themselves recorded the material as they saw fit, and then Wall Matthews and Chris Evans at Clean Cuts Studios in Baltimore sequenced and mastered the disc. Longtime WCNI dj/personality Mahavishnu Jim Miller was called upon to provide the text to the back story, and submitted a sanguine meditation in his familiar style. Michelle Gemma spent several days and nights at the Greenman Collective rehearsal studios photographing the bands and models for the front cover, and Rich Martin at Hozomeen Press worked relentlessly to take all of these elements and design the final artwork into a cohesive and scintillating finished product.
Two shows were held to commemorate the release of the record, a club show at the venerable El-n-Gee in New London featuring Psyche, Delta of Venus, Vera from Alice, Lotus, Map, Cigarette, onDasher, and Grand Passion, and an all ages show in Mystic with Ambertones, Adams Onis, $3 Depth Charge and Doug.
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