In an effort to peek as far into the dense fog of this tape by Pittsburgh trio Hunted Creatures, I did what any self-respecting Cerberus cassette reviewer might: I Wiki’d some shit. The word “Mogollon,” according to the all-knowing Gods of Information, may refer to any of the following: Anthropology, Cryptozoology, Geography, Music, People. How convenient, because I think I can hear just about all of those things when making my way through this spooky labyrinth of sound. Indeed, the Mogollon Rim is firstly a place somewhere in Arizona, marked by its topographical features and meager forests of pine. It’s also said to be the stomping ground of a creature called the Mogollon Monster, a rarely spotted mythic bi-pedal beast that stands 7 feet tall and has a habit for threatening boy scout troop leaders with clubs. And like a good campfire ghost story as told by a drunken elder, Mogollon Rim is an album rife with mystery and suspense told with a wobbly footing that nonetheless feels experienced and entirely sure of itself. Taking on a multitude of suspicious and ambiguous shapes and scales, plodding rhythms that have oddly arrhythmic constructs, swirling ambient textures that sway from ear-to-ear, and carefully timed background textures, Hunted Creatures magnify their music’s environmental scope in vivid 3D, providing a set of varied harmonic material that manages a coherent thematic plot and narrative throughout it’s mostly-improvised method. Reportedly the final entry in Dynamo Sound Collective’s catalog, Mogollon Rim is a fascinating and engrossing space that feels as though it’s full of what I can only describe as a tangible emptiness. I know that makes little to no sense, but just go with it.
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